A weekly update on new research and developments concerning COVID-19 (and occasionally other infectious diseases that hit the news).
We take questions via call-in during the live broadcast, Mondays at 7:33am Pacific, streaming via kpfa.org. Podcasts with show notes go up later the same day. Between live shows, we take questions via email at upfront@kpfa.org .
Our guest most weeks is Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Our question-wrangler most weeks is Brian Edwards-Tiekert, host of KPFA’s morning public affairs program, UpFront.
Music: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
To send us a question in advance of next week’s show, write to: coronacalls@kpfa.org. Tune in live Monday mornings (or Tuesdays when Monday’s a holiday) at 7:30am Pacific at kpfa.org Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Discussed in this episode: After considering reams of data, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended another round of COVID vaccination in the spring for people who are older or more-vulnerable for other reasons. The federal government has started to put some significant money into the development of next-generation COVID vaccines, including nasal … Continued
Discussed in this episode: California now has 13 confirmed cases of H5N1 Avian Influenza in humans – an order of magnitude more than any other state. It might be possible to build a vaccine using virus-like particles that induces long-lasting B-cell immunity, by placing the spike proteins closer together. To send us a question in … Continued
Discussed in the episode: Two new studies are out on the long-term impacts of COVID on the brain: the first tracked impacts on people with COVID severe enough to require hospitalization, and found cognitive deficits equivalent in magnitude to 20 years of ageing; the second studied the impacts of deliberately (!) exposing young, healthy volunteers … Continued
Discussed in the episode: Missouri has confirmed a case of H5N1 Avian Influenza in a person who had no identifiable contact with animals known to carry the disease, raising fears the virus may have become capable of human-to-human transmission. Several close contacts of the patient had symptoms as well, but none so far have tested … Continued
An all-emails edition, as KPFA’s fund drive keeps our time tight and out phone lines busy. To chip in: Mention Corona Calls when you contribute at kpfa.org/support To send us a question in advance of next week’s show, write to: coronacalls@kpfa.org. Tune in live Monday mornings (or Tuesdays when Monday’s a holiday) at 7:30am Pacific at … Continued
Discussed in this episode: Wastewater monitoring seems to show COVID levels have peaked, after a summer wave much larger than in recent years. For the first time, H5N1 avian influenza has been confirmed in California. The California Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed it in three dairy herds, all of them in the Central Valley. There are … Continued
Discussed in this episode: The FDA has approved the latest iteration of the Novavax vaccine. Here are the main differences with the MRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) that had new versions approved slightly earlier: Novavax works by injecting COVID spike proteins into the body, rather than injecting MRNA molecules that tell the body’s cells to … Continued
Discussed in this episode: The FDA’s just approved a new round of COVID shots, tuned to target the KP.2 subvariant of the the virus, which is not the dominant strain in circulation right now, but a close relative. MRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna should be available as soon as this week. The updated Novavax … Continued
Discussed in this episode: Key COVID-19 prevalence indicators suggest the current surge of COVID-19 infections is the largest summer wave ever, with infections extra-concentrated in the western United States. Test positivity is at its highest since the Omicron wave, but hospitalizations and deaths are comparatively low. COVID levels in sewage samples are particularly high around … Continued
