Author Archives: ceopate

My role of trying to educate the public about this developing pandemic and the actual and potential risks that SARS-CoV-2 infection presented back in the first two years, when misinformation and disinformation were rampant, and when the evidence was still unfolding, and especially prior to the availability of vaccines, was greatly challenging. On one hand,Continue reading “COVID-19: I Fear that the Minimizers and Proponents of the “Get them infected so that we will have herd immunity” have done Great Harm to Many”

Starting tomorrow (Monday, September 23, 2024), all U.S. households can once again request 4 free at-home rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 on the website http://www.COVIDTests.gov. For information about at-home rapid antigen tests, see At-Home OTC COVID-19 Diagnostic Tests | FDA. Before throwing out tests you may have at home already, keep in mind that forContinue reading “The Opportunity to Get Free Home COVID-19 Rapid Tests”

Though it can lead to confusion, I can’t think of a situation where having more options as to vaccines wasn’t a good thing. For the COVID-19 vaccines, having the Novavax option was a good solution for those who have fears stoked by prominent antivaxxers who have spread all kinds of disinformation about the mRNA vaccinesContinue reading “More Options with More Convenience for Influenza Vaccines”

We saw an unprecedented global outbreak of the monkeypox virus clade IIb in 2022 that was eventually contained to some degree with education and vaccination of those at highest risk for infection, which for the most part appeared to be men who have sex with multiple male partners. Most recently, a new outbreak of monkeypoxContinue reading “A Possible Vaccine Strategy to Contain the Mpox Outbreak in Africa”

How is Transmissibility to Humans Evolving and How are we doing Managing the Pandemic Risk? To answer these questions, I am going to review two recent articles with you: “Pathogenicity and Transmissibility of Bovine H5N1 Influenza Virus” Pathogenicity and transmissibility of bovine H5N1 influenza virus | Nature published in Nature in July of this yearContinue reading “Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Poultry and Dairy Farms in the U.S.”

There have been many articles published about neurological sequelae following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this blog post, we will review two recent papers (“Neurological Complications caused by SARS-CoV-2”, Neurological complications caused by SARS-CoV-2 (asm.org), appearing in Clinical Microbiology Reviews and “Cognitive and Psychiatric Symptom Trajectories 2 – 3 years after Hospital Admission for COVID-19: A Longitudinal,Continue reading “Neurological Complications and Conditions Resulting from SARS-CoV-2 Infection (COVID-19)”

The FDA has authorized two new COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and is expected to authorize a third (Novavax) in the coming weeks. It is anticipated that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may start showing up in some pharmacies as soon as this weekend, with much more availability during the course of next week. WhatContinue reading “When to Get the 2024-2025 Updated COVID-19 Vaccine”

“Sporadic human infections with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus, with a wide spectrum of clinical severity and a cumulative case fatality of more than 50%, have been reported in 23 countries over more than 20 years. HPAI A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b viruses have spread widely among wild birds worldwide since 2020–2021, resulting in outbreaks inContinue reading “Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Infection in a Texas Dairy Farm Worker”