Image credit: iStock photo How many times have you met someone and then immediately forgotten their name? What about meeting someone, forgetting their name, but then you see them frequently enough that it becomes too awkward to ask them again for their name? Most of us are guilty to each of these. Sometimes I…
GMO Mosquitoes are the Next Frontier of Mosquito Control Technologies
In the Spring of 2018, I was in the audience of a public Town Hall in the FL Keys discussing the use of innovative mosquito control technologies. I was representing MosquitoMate with their patented Wolbachia male mosquito release technology. Wolbachia utilizes a mechanism known as cytoplasmic incompatibility that can reduce insect populations, in our case…
How Science Communication (SciComm) Remains Apolitical
Image: Patrick presenting at the USUHS Postdoctoral Research Symposium May 2019 – Bethesda, MD. Dr. Tony Fauci, director of the NIAID, recently gave an interview to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on his America Dissected Podcast. Dr. Sayed asked Dr. Fauci how he has been able to maintain his credibility through 6 Presidential administrations and communicate effectively…
Population density, not Political Party, is a better indicator for COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Image credit: NIAID at Bloomberg With all 50 states beginning some type of reopening after Stay-at-home orders and business closures, I wanted to assess the total number of COVID-19 cases/deaths comparing population density and Governor political affiliation in a state by state basis (I previously wrote a post on how States responded to COVID-19 based…
Building Trust between Public Health Experts and the Public.
Image Source: Boston Globe, via AFP Getty Images COVID-19 has upended the typical “look” of a scientist. Gone are the days of enjoying an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy every week in middle school or taking a virtual trip with Ms. Frizzle on The Magic School bus. Nowadays, our mainstream scientists are Drs….
Some Reading During the COVID-19 Quarantine
One of my 2020 resolutions was to read one book a month for the entire year. Well, the COVID-19 quarantine has most certainly helped fulfill that goal. Below I review 6 books I have read since April, some relevant to the shutdown life, others not so much. Nonetheless, reading has been something to do to…
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowship (STPF) Semi-Finalist Policy Memo Exercise
Back in October, I submitted my application to become an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowship (STPF). AAAS is the largest science society in the world with the objective to advance effective science policies for the betterment of mankind. Last week, I was privileged to interview as a…
Book Review: Influenza, Dr. Jeremy Brown (2018)
To study infectious disease outbreaks, one of the first things researchers do is to sequence the genome. We did this in real time with the Ebola outbreak in 2014, we’re doing it right now with SARS-CoV-2, and we constantly do this with the influenza virus to predict when the flu season is approaching and how…
Comparing COVID-19 Testing Capacities Among the 50 States
Basically, positive tests for COVID-19 should beget more testing! Image Credit: © Joe Raedle/Getty Images at Live Science Previously we learned that the United States has conducted the most COVID-19 tests than any other country. But in reality, we haven’t performed nearly as many when you calculate the total tests performed against how many people…
Differences in social distancing measures and their impact on the COVID-19 curve
Image Credit: Toby Morris @xtotl — featured on The Spinoff Yesterday, the U.S. experienced our largest daily COVID-19 death toll with over 800 deaths. President Trump rightly implemented another 30 days of social distancing in the face of the grim reality of the virus. Further, the White House Task Force now says we may have…