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Why getting a flu shot is especially important this year
Get your flu shot this year. That’s the strong advice from health experts worried that a double whammy of the flu plus COVID-19 could lead to an overtaxed health care system.
Coronavirus social distancing measures could slow flu, too
Social distancing measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus could also help reduce flu transmission this fall, but it’s still important for people to get a flu shot, says an expert.
Comment: U.S. withdrawal from WHO unlawful, threat to global health
Fifteen health and legal experts called President Trump’s move to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization “reckless,” in violation of U.S. law, and a threat to global health and security.
A coronavirus Q&A with immunologist Sarah Fortune
Numerous topics about COVID-19—such as how COVID-19 deaths compare to influenza deaths, or how likely it is to get COVID-19 from airborne transmission—were discussed in a May 1, 2020 C-SPAN interview featuring Sarah Fortune, John LaPorte Given Professor…
Debating the transparency surrounding risky pathogen research
Experts are trying to figure out how much the public should know about experiments that could make pathogens, such as viruses, more transmissible or more deadly. Scientists conduct this type of research in order to better understand how…
Keeping perspective on the coronavirus outbreak
News about the coronavirus that recently spread from Wuhan, China, has increasingly made headlines and filled news segments, yet epidemiologists and infectious disease experts are cautioning the public against panicking. “We don’t have evidence yet to suggest this…
Measles can wipe out immune system memory, increase vulnerability to other infections
Measles, in and of itself a severe and sometimes deadly disease, can also cause lasting harm to the immune system and leave people vulnerable to other serious infections, such as flu or pneumonia, according to a new study.…
Why it’s important to get a flu shot—especially this year
The U.S. may be in for a bad flu season this year, and health experts are urging people to get a flu shot as soon as possible. “September or October is a good time to get [the vaccine]…
When to get a flu vaccine? Later may be better.
It’s “probably best” for people to wait to later in the flu season to get a flu shot, according to Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Lipsitch, who was quoted in…
Transparency needed around potentially dangerous experiments on deadly viruses
In late 2017, the U.S. government lifted a three-year moratorium on funding risky research to genetically alter deadly viruses in ways that could make them even more lethal. Scientists including Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H.…