Petrie Dish

COVID cases have been increasing for weeks nationwide, but a COVID expert says not to call it a surge just yet.

'We've seen women who have not gone outside the door in six months,' said Margaret Constantino, executive director of the Center for Refugee Services in San Antonio. 'How does anybody stay healthy in that kind of environment?'

Family members of a woman who changed modern medicine — without her knowledge and certainly without her permission — spoke at a gathering of scientists in San Antonio recently about ethics and equity in science and medicine.

While there are still tests, treatments like paxlovid, and vaccines in the national stockpile, those should remain easily accessible. Once the stockpile is depleted, though, all those things may become more costly to the consumer and more difficult to get.

Medical misinformation is killing people, according to the head of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Robert Califf blames misinformation and disinformation about public health for the fact that life expectancy in the United States is between three and five years lower than it is in other high-income countries.

Can it turn us into murderous zombies? No, but it has killed between 30 to 60 percent of those it has infected.

Some are calling it the Kim Kardashian weight loss drug. Ozempic related videos have more than 1 billion views on TikTok. The medication is taken to help control blood sugar levels in type two diabetes, and it has taken off for an off-label use — as a treatment for obesity. Now, Ozempic is being studied for yet another potential use — as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

San Antonio researchers are getting the band back together, in a way. They’re reaching out to people who participated in a groundbreaking 1979 study on heart disease and diabetes in the Latino population to see if they’d like to enroll in a new study.

One of humanity's great quests made microscopic in the aging intestines of tiny monkeys.

Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez runs two long COVID clinics in San Antonio, is known for running marathons, and she partners in running a home as a mom to two children. But after recovering from COVID-19, she couldn’t walk around a mall. Host Bonnie Petrie speaks with Dr. Gutierrez about the realities of long COVID for millions of people three years into the pandemic.

The idea that there may be medicines already out there, safe and approved by the FDA and just waiting to be rediscovered is tantalizing for scientists, doctors, and patients.

Kids seem to be catching everything and getting sicker as the pandemic enters its third winter, leaving physicians and researchers to figure out what's going on.

Tens of millions of Americans take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — SSRIs — to treat depression by addressing what was believed to be a chemical imbalance in the brain. While new research debunks this theory, there are a number of factors people should consider before getting off these medications.

Flu. RSV. COVID-19. This three car collision of respiratory viruses as winter approaches is causing some health experts to worry about what they’re calling a "tridemic."

Whole genome sequencing is now becoming cheap enough that doctors will be able to order it for everyone if they want. That could lead to truly personalized medicine. But it could be even bigger than that.

The phrase 'mental health' has been used repeatedly in politics to avoid the gun control debate. But there was a significant lack of access to mental health care in Uvalde prior to the shooting.

The kids are not alright. A CDC analysis released earlier this year found that in 2021— the second year of the pandemic — more than 37% of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health, and 44% reported they felt persistently sad or hopeless throughout the year. Before the pandemic, mental health was already getting worse — according to previous studies from the CDC. Bonnie Petrie guest hosted TPR's The Source to talk to experts about this issue and the telehealth program in Texas that hopes to help solve the mental health crisis.

When Petrie Dish returns in September, we'll continue to bring you the latest on COVID-19 and also explore other topics with in-depth interview and reporting ... like a new study on depression that has people asking their doctors about their SSRI's ... or the idea that sequencing your genome may soon be affordable for almost everyone. Should you do it? And yes, we’ll dive into that other fast spreading virus: monkeypox. That’s all on Petrie Dish when we return in September.

As waves of omicron and its extremely contagious subvariants burn through previously uninfected populations, it has become clear that people with mild or asymptomatic cases aren’t immune from long COVID. Host Bonnie Petrie talked to reporter Pablo De La Rosa about his experience with long COVID over the past two years, along with Dr. Monica Verduzco Gutierrez, professor and distinguished chair of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. They discussed what we know about post-COVID syndrome and what we need to do to prepare for the decades of disability that may remain long after the pandemic is in the rear view.

COVID-19 testing clinics around the country are closing, and federal funding for free clinical testing is drying up. But wastewater surveillance could step in to play a crucial role in keeping track of where the virus is and just how much is really circulating out there. In this episode, host Bonnie Petrie takes us to a wastewater treatment plant in Converse, Texas and talks to scientists trying to build a surveillance and sequencing program in South Texas.

Ashley Savidge Hernandez, a Marine Corps spouse and mother of five, delivered a baby while critically ill with COVID-19. How did she and her healthy son Kyzon survive the worst that COVID has to offer?

Dr. Peter Hotez has become one of the faces of the pandemic. The bow-tied Texas scientist has been all over radio and television — and on this podcast, too — explaining viruses generally and COVID-19 specifically. Now Hotez and his partner, PhD scientist Maria Elena Bottazzi, have developed a vaccine that would be cheap and easy to produce.

In this episode, Bonnie Petrie guest hosts The Source on Texas Public Radio to put listener questions about long-haul COVID to two leading experts

Texas has had 24 rural hospital closures since 2005, the most in the country, and the problem is being felt by the most vulnerable.

New research out of South Africa and the UK have found that the omicron variant dramatically reduces vaccine effectiveness in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. However, there are ways to minimize omicron's impact in the United States.

Children between 5 and 11 are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Is the vaccine safe for people in this age group? Does it work? What are the potential side effects? We ask an epidemiologist and a pediatrician those questions and much more.

A new podcast from Texas Public Radio explores the confusion, heartbreak, and joy of moving back home to care for an aging relative. It's hosted by longtime NPR journalist Kitty Eisele, who chronicles her journey caring for her dad and the conversations she has with friends and experts along the way. You can listen to the first five episodes of "Demented" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

On this episode of Petrie Dish, host Bonnie Petrie speaks with Dr. Tracey Baas of Texas Biomedical Institute about timing, mixing and matching, who should be getting the booster and more.

The emergence of the delta variant has presented a daunting challenge in the fight against the COVID virus, made worse by a pandemic of bad information. Much of that bad information is being spread intentionally by people who know it's false; it's disinformation. People across the country consume that disinformation and — believing it's true — pass it on. In this episode of Petrie Dish, we explore the medical misinformation and disinformation that are fueling anti-mask and anti-vaccine beliefs that are driving the delta surge.

COVID-19 and pregnancy are not a good mix. In this episode of Petrie Dish, Bonnie Petrie explores the risks associated with getting COVID during pregnancy and why doctors are recommending that people who are pregnant get a COVID vaccine.

In this episode of Petrie Dish, a pediatric infectious diseases doctor outlines steps those who are around unvaccinated children can take to keep them safe.

In this week's Petrie Dish, we follow up with Hidalgo County’s health authority about the increasing number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the area.

An increasing number of cases of the delta variant in the United States has many experts urging caution.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control urged adolescents aged 12 and up to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after a recent increase in COVID hospitalizations for that age group. Many adolescents have questions about the vaccine. Petrie Dish asked an expert for the answers.

As of May 13, nearly 120 million Americans are fully vaccinated, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance saying anyone who is fully vaccinated can take off their masks in most situations, outside and inside.For many in the United States it can feel like the pandemic is over, but many people across the country remain unvaccinated and COVID surges are still happening across the globe. This week's Petrie Dish takes a look at the state of the pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control have asked vaccine administrators to stop using the Johnson & Johnson one-dose COVID-19 vaccine. The federal agencies called for this pause after six women experienced dangerous blood clots after getting the J&J shot. Dr. Ruth Berggren is an infectious diseases doctor and the director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at UT Health San Antonio. She says this recommended pause is appropriate, but stresses that the reports of blood clots in those who’ve received the J&J shot are exceedingly rare.

The pandemic has not been easy on children. TPR's Bonnie Petrie spoke with a renowned pediatrician about how to help them overcome the individual and collective trauma of the last year.

People who've been working on the front lines of the pandemic reflect on the one year milestone and the loss of 500,000 Americans.

This week's Petrie Dish is personal: Host Bonnie Petrie receives her first dose of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine.

Dr. Ricardo Cigarroa is a cardiologist in Laredo. He descends from a line of doctors in the city who have been serving patients there for 100 years.

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina is an epidemiologist at UT Health’s School of Public Health in Dallas. She said there are about 12,000 strains of SARS-CoV-2 circulating around the world right now. One of them — the UK variant — is likely to become the dominant strain in the U.S. by March.

The pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, but it's also stolen our normal lives and our sense of security. How do we go on when pressed under the weight of so much personal and collective pain? This week's Petrie Dish explores pandemic grief and also considers ideas about how to transform that pain into resilience.

Dr. Ricardo Carrion, a virologist at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, leads us on a deep dive into coronaviruses, this mutation, and what it may mean for the newly developed coronavirus treatments and vaccines.

Texas hospitals are struggling under the weight of the state's worst COVID-19 surge yet. This month the state has seen single-day records for the first, second and third most confirmed daily cases. Hospitalizations have reached the highest level since July. And the situation is likely to get worse. Rural parts of Texas are being hit especially hard.

A San Antonio mathematician who has modeled this pandemic since the beginning says more than 1 million people could die of COVID-19 by spring.

Dr. Peter Hotez expects two COVID-19 vaccines to be approved before the end of the year, and possibly a half dozen by this time next year. He says he has no preference among the early offerings and will get the first one that's made available to him.

Dr. Céline Gounder is on President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board. She said tracking the virus’ progression through the country as the number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths rise is extremely difficult.

Recent surges in El Paso, Armarillo and Lubbock have pushed Texas’ total case count over 1 million with about 20,000 deaths.How did Texas get here, and what lies ahead?

Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control, has advice for Americans about how to get through the holidays safely. He also has tips for President-elect Joe Binden on how to fight the pandemic going forward.

Diana Berrent lives on Long Island. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early March and was among the first group of Americans infected with the novel coronavirus. She fought off the infection at home, treating herself with Tylenol and Gatorade.After 18 days in self isolation, she was fine, she thought.Turns out, like many people infected with COVID-19, she’s a long-hauler.