Discussed in this episode: A new paper in Science Translational Medicine draws results from animal experiments, human samples, and human autopsies to suggest a mechanism for some cases of Long Covid: the virus binds to a protein on our cells’ mitochondria and can enduringly alter their function. Podcast music credit:  Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 … Continued

Discussed in this episode: Data aggregated by the CDC shows an increase in COVID hospitalizations, in positive test rates among people seeking emergency care, and in SARS-COV2 levels in wastewater samples.  You can look up COVID levels in California wastewater on a system-by-system basis here Podcast music credit:  Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International … Continued

Discussed in this episode: New research published in Nature examined if people who got infected without showing symptoms had something in common genetically. They did: a mutation on the  HLA-B (that’s short for Human Leukocyte Antigen) gene. In the laboratory, T-cell samples collected from those people *before* infection reacted strongly to SARS-COV2, suggesting the mutation helps … Continued

Filling in for Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Philip Maldari hosts Covid Calls this week, featuring Dr. John Swartzberg, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Infectious Diseases at UC Berkeley. Discussed in this episode: Growth of the anti-vaccination movement and its weaponization in US politics The spread of Measles in the United States The rules and timelines for receiving a … Continued

Filling in for Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Jesse Strauss hosts Covid Calls this week, featuring Dr. John Swartzberg, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Infectious Diseases at UC Berkeley. Discussed in this episode: Covid infectiousness correlated with particular blood types: https://fortune.com/well/2023/06/27/which-blood-type-greater-risk-getting-covid-19/ The childhood diabetes rate has risen in correlation with covid – we discuss whether there’s a causal link: … Continued

Discussed in this episode: A randomized controlled trial shows the cheap, widely-available diabetes drug Metformin significantly reduces (by 41%) the likelihood of long covid in unvaccinated people who get infected: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00299-2/fulltext (Vaccinated and boosted people still did considerably better than unvaccinated people who received Metformin. Vaccinated people didn’t receive enough added benefit from Metformin to … Continued