Q&A with Lisa Gray

For more than 40 years, in what’s now known as the Kinder Houston Area Survey, Rice professor Steven Klineberg has been asking Houstonians about their city. Lisa talks with her former professor about what he found in this year’s survey. How did the pandemic change Houston? And as the city emerges into its post-pandemic future, what is on people’s minds? What are the challenges we see ahead?

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Houston Chronicle Health Care Reporter Gwendolyn Wu fills in for the vacationing Lisa Gray this week. She talks with podcast regular Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

As temperatures rise across the country, infectious diseases, experts say it's a tale to COVID nations as we head into the summer. On one hand, we have some states with high vaccination rates and where people are still practicing mask wearing even after they've gotten the shot. On the other hand, we have stagnating vaccination rates in the south, especially among adolescents and anti-vaccine movements, bring in the Delta COVID variant and it might be a lot of trouble across the South in the months ahead. 

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Harvard history professor Annette Gordon-Reed's latest book, “On Juneteenth” mixes a recounting of the role that slavery plays in Texas history with Gordon-Reed’s own remembrances -- of her East Texas family, and of growing up in Conroe, a town that had a particularly bad reputation for its treatment of Blacks. In mid-’60s, as a first grader, Gordon-Reed became the first African-American student to enter Conroe’s white school system.

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With kids under 12 not yet eligible to be vaccinated, what are parents supposed to do this summer? How safe is it to take a family vacation? Given that the state of Texas bars summer camps and classes from requiring masks, how safe are those for unvaccinated kids? To answer those questions and more, Lisa reached out to Dr. Jim Versalovic, Interim Pediatrician-in-Chief of Texas Children's Hospital.

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Long-time Lisa Gray listeners might remember a July 2020 Coronavirus Chronicle interview with Katie Haynes -- one of the United States’ first COVID long-haulers. In February 2020, she was 28 years old and training to run a 5K. In early March she was hospitalized with COVID and a blood clot in her lung. When Lisa talked with her in July, just standing up to cook herself dinner left Katie exhausted and out of breath.

Wondered how Katie is doing, Lisa gave her a call. The answer is surprising -- and also delightful and hard to explain. Katie had contract Covid a second time and once again Katie Haynes’ life is way out ahead of scientific certainties.

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Dr. Ben Neuman is one of the world’s top coronavirus experts -- he’s researched them since 1996 -- and is now chief virologist at Texas A&M’s Global Health Research Complex.

He’s also great at explaining cutting-edge science to regular human beings. Today he brings us up to speed on new research, including an explanation of one of COVID’s most mystifying symptoms -- blood clots -- and why new variants may cause even more of them.

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During the pandemic Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been one of Texas’ most consistent voices of caution. Elected in 2018 at age 27, she’s basically the CEO of Texas’ largest county — one that, with a population around 4.8 million, is the size of an average American state.

In June 2020, as infections were surging, Hidalgo announced that Harris County was at COVID threat Level 1 — red on the danger dial, the scariest and worst, with everyone urged to stay home. Now, almost a year later, with vaccines available for anyone who shows up, we’re still there. Will we ever get out? How will she know it’s time?

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After months of climbing steadily, the number of Texans immunized against COVID-19 has plateaued. Now that half of Texans 18 and over have received at least a first dose, the number of people newly vaccinated is increasing as slowly as it did during the agonizing February freeze and power outage. What's going on? We talk with Gwen Wu of the Houston Chronicle health team.

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Read Gwen's story: Half of Texas adults have now had at least one shot of the COVID vaccine

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Why exactly is the B.1.1.7 variant outcompeting the original virus that causes COVID-19? Why does this one seem to affect children far more often than the one we’re used to? And if a person is fully vaccinated, how much should we worry about B.1.1.7 and other variants?

Today, Lisa talks with Ben Neuman, one of the world’s top experts on coronaviruses. He’s been studying the things for 24 years. He’s the Global Health Research Complex Chief Virologist at Texas A&M University.

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Dr. Peter Hotez, Houston’s most famous vaccine expert (and Q&A regular) talks with Lisa about vaccination rates, variants and what he’s looking forward to after we make it through the summer. SPOILER ALERT: He wants sleep.

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