Hey the pandemic is nearly over! It's time to test your knowledge. Here's my responses to a list of questions submitted by a loyal listener. +++ Thank you! +++

In this episode we discuss the current situation in Virginia Beach (various variants!), in the state of Virginia (still orange but trending down!), and in the US; we talk about Virginia Beach students going back to school full-time in person 4 days a week and we also create a 2x2 table to illustrate the perils of asymptomatic screening in a low prevalence situation. Get your pencil and paper ready for the fun! You get to be in charge and you get to decide if this policy makes sense. The closer introduces a podcast recommendation for your next road trip with the family regarding equitable vaccine distribution from a philosopher's point of view. Don't miss the closer! Thank you so much for listening.

This episode provides an update on incidence in Virginia Beach, Michigan, and Ontario Hockey League's decision to suspend season, vaccine availability and the decision whether to vaccinate youth athletes, immunity via vaccination or disease, and why asymptomatic testing is often not useful. Written report and links available on request.

Discussion regarding why we decided to get the vaccine, framing risks, and why is picnicking more dangerous than boxing? JAMA study referenced in show: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2778347

This episode briefly reviews the FDA briefing document safety and efficacy data from J&J for the Ad26 platform one shot covid vaccine. Thanks for listening!

This episode summarizes what I've been reading and hearing related to reactions after vaccination. Discussion includes innate and adaptive immune response and the role of aging in muting the immune response. Recorded at zero degrees in a hockey rink during practice. Brief discussion about the privilege of boots on the ground experience playing through the pandemic. My son says - beware the placebo effect... Thank you for listening! (Btw: note that intro and closer are precisely balanced in length, like the vaccine and placebo arms... Symmetry!)

In this episode I try to share what I have learned about Germinal Centers (GC) - a part of your immune system that allows B cells to selectively mature into producing the best-fitting antibodies. The GC are an important part of the affinity maturation process wherein B cells are provoked to mutate into a wide variety of options, some of which will fit better than others to the spike protein. I close with some thoughts about what this might mean for people considering vaccination vs natural disease with respect to durable immunity. There's a surprise guest at the end... Cell, Oct 2020 - GC weakened in severe COVID-19  Immunity, Dec 2020 - GC and mRNA vaccines

This episode reflects on the systems engineering challenge of reducing risk of virus transmission - the human factors. Inspired by conversations with two great mentors today, one an epidemiologist, former professor and friend, and the other an aerospace engineer and friend who (actually!) enjoys endless conversations about COVID and how we can be better managers and communicators. Recorded while running (what?!), and thinking about running this endurance race against (with?) the indefatigable virus. Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoy!

In this longer audible bio, I share how I got started as an epidemiologist and medical writer. It's Thanksgiving weekend, and a great opportunity to thank my mentors and managers who believed in me as a young person fresh out of grad school. I've known them for 20 years, and still turn to them when I need a confidence boost or fresh direction.  My career has been very diverse. I was one of the few public health professionals who wanted to work for a non-profit HMO instead of going directly into a public health agency. After managing preventive health programs and publishing an original research article, I moved into vaccine sales and saw the frontlines of healthcare delivery in the Northeast. When I married a Navy Officer and started moving from coast to coast, then Hawaii and overseas to Japan, I needed a portable career. We just moved to Virginia Beach with our two teen boys after spending four incredible years in Japan. Being a medical writer has offered me a professional path and connections with people doing important public health work around the world. In this episode, I describe how I use my training in epidemiology as a writing and research consultant, how I invest myself on the front lines as a volunteer epidemiologist, and some of the ideas I'm wrestling with from the policy sidelines. Thanks for taking a listen to this first episode!

Alli Krug is an epidemiologist and medical writer with 15 years' experience as a developmental editor for 400 published research manuscripts. I'm fast, fun to work with, and scholarly. This brief audible bio is for the manic multi-taskers among us. A good developmental editor or health copywriter can move your project through to publication.  Contact me today to book your project for 2021.