The last time we talked with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, it was Dec 2020. Now, it's May 2022 — 17 months later. A lot has changed and in some ways it feels like nothing has changed. This time around, we get into current details around coronavirus/COVID, what's happening now/the current state, and what the future looks like.

We recorded this episode over two sessions and along the way we get into many topics, including the notion of reinfections (more and more common with Omicron), how the testing numbers may not reflect actual cases with more and more home testing (and some people not testing at all), how an at-home test is different than a PCR test, and the current slate of variants — BA.1, BA.2, BA2.12.1, BA.4, BA.5, XE, etc. We also touch on COVID therapies including Paxlovid, an oral antiviral treatment, and Evusheld, monoclonal antibodies. As well, we talked about some of what Dr. Chin-Hong is concerned about in the future — including avian flu and influenza along with the idea that diseases like valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) have been creeping up over the last few years because we as humans are settling into areas (more rural, for instance) that large groups of us haven't been before. And then, we end the show by talking about his work as a professor of medicine and educator at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) — what teaching medicine has looked like the last few years with students (and teachers) as little blobs on a screen.

Stay tuned until the end of the episode for a longer bit about the flu that didn't really have a place anywhere else.

Special Guest: Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.

Links:

• SF Chronicle: How California’s COVID numbers compare to the last time its mask mandate was lifted
• PBS News Hour: Dr. Fauci on why the U.S. is ‘out of the pandemic phase’ — Originally posted Apr 26, 2022
• 13 things to know about Paxlovid, the latest COVID-19 pill
• The Guardian: Why are there so many new Omicron subvariants, like BA.4 and BA.5? Is the virus mutating faster?
• The Commonwealth Fund: Impact of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts: An Update on Averted Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Health Care Costs Through March 2022
• Evusheld Antibody Treatment for COVID-19
• 1918-1920 flu epidemic
• Faculty Interview: Peter Chin-Hong, MD
• Peter Chin-Hong Explores Identity and History in 2021 Last Lecture