Q&A with Lisa Gray

This episode is the final installment of "Q&A with Lisa Gray" and Lisa ends the podcast where it began: Talking with bow-tied vaccine researcher Peter Hotez.

Hotez co-directs the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He’s also known for fighting anti-science disinformation on Twitter, cable news networks and elsewhere.

Lisa is leaving the Chronicle to take a job with a media startup in Houston.

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According to epidemiologist Catherine Troisi, "It depends on what you mean by “end.” Is the virus going to disappear? Probably not." Lisa and Catherine spoke Wednesday afternoon. Troisi is with the University of Texas School of Public Health.

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Ben Neuman was one of the world’s top experts on coronaviruses long before most of us had ever heard of them. He’s now chief virologist at Texas A&M’s Global Health Research Complex, and regularly updates us on coronavirus science.

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"With nearly 20 percent of new cases being children, now we're going to huddle them together in schools?" says Bill McKeon. "Some may have masks. Some may not. It's a recipe for disaster."

In Texas, the delta-fueled surge has already surpassed all previous COVID peaks and is still growing fast. What does that mean for Houston? For our hospitals and the people who work in them? And for Texas kids as school reopens?

This week Lisa talks with Bill McKeon, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center.

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The delta variant is running loose and wreaking havoc. Houston-area ERs and ICUs are full, and hospitals are erecting tents in their parking lots. And all of that is before the Texas school year begins, with unvaccinated children attending in-person classes where masks may not be required.

Today, Lisa talks with frequent guest Peter Hotez about the trajectory of the current surge, how it it's still not too late to reopen schools safely and how a Texas vaccine could save the world.

Hotez is one country’s most visible scientists during the pandemic. He co-directs the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He’s also known for fighting anti-science disinformation on Twitter, cable news networks and elsewhere.

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Lisa talks with Houston pediatrician Christina Propst about the recent resurgence of COVID in children, plus a worrisome summertime spike in a sometimes serious respiratory virus called R.S.V. that is taking up precious hospital beds. Propst is a pediatrician at Bluefish Pediatrics in the Greater Heights, as well as a member of the American Association of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters, and the Texas Pediatric Society Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunizations.

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In the past month, with the delta variant loose and only half of eligible Texans fully vaccinated, COVID hospitalizations in Texas have more than doubled.

Texas Medical Center CEO Bill McKeon says that our area’s COVID “fourth wave is beginning in force.”What does all that mean? To explain, we turn to one of my favorite regular guests: vaccine researcher Peter Hotez.

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Why do viruses have seasons? And why do we care whether fish get coronaviruses? Dr. Ben Neuman, head of Texas A&M's Global Health Research Complex, returns to answer more of our COVID questions.

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Given the vaccines and variants, how different will school be this year? What should parents keep in mind -- both this summer and in the fall? To find out, I’m talking today with nurse-practitioner Jessica Ginn, one of  the interim senior directors for school-based health pediatrics at Legacy Community Health.

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The epidemiologist who went viral

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiology researcher and professor at UT Health School of Public Health in Dallas writes "Your Local Epidemiologist," a newsletter and Facebook blog that since March 2020, has amassed a quarter million followers and subscribers. Today from her office in Dallas, she talks with Lisa about both the upsides and downsides of that sudden, unexpected audience, and also how we should think about the Delta variant. 

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