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

Three and a half years into the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control has issued updated guidelines on air exchange and filtration for indoor spaces: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html The CDC has also issued updated masking guidelines: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html NB: these recommendations are now tied to COVID-19 hospitalization levels, rather than levels of community spread (which the CDC is … Continued