By Amy Rogers, MD, PhD The US Food and Drug Administration has “authorized” second COVID-19 boosters for people 50 years and older. ( STAT News) For most vaccinated Americans, a second booster would be a fourth dose of COVID vaccine. Should you get the shot? A lot of people have asked me this question. Let’s jump to the punchline: For…

By Amy Rogers,MD, PhD Natural Immunity and Muscosal Antibodies A reader asked about a friend who is “monitoring his immune level” as a way to protect himself against COVID19 without getting vaccinated. This friend also believes “discussion about natural immunity is being suppressed.” Monitoring Your Immune Level To say you are “monitoring your immune level” is akin to saying…

By Dr. Amy Rogers, MD, PhD After reading my article “Why Omicron Will Be The Last COVID Variant of (Major) Concern”, someone asked me about vaccination for people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, or who have actually had a symptomatic case of COVID19. Here is my reply. The…

By Amy Rogers, MD, PhD In my last post I said, “I’m not worried about another, more contagious variant emerging. Omicron is that variant.” I further argued that we were on the verge of achieving a type of herd immunity in the US. Several people asked a good question about…

By Amy Rogers, MD, PhD We all prefer clarity and simplicity. How nice it would be if life offered us simple either/or, good/bad choices. We crave simplicity so much that we impose it on complex situations and people: these kind of people are wrong, these kind are right. Or, they must be hiding something. They’re…

What’s your risk of dying of COVID compared to other stuff? By Amy Rogers, MD, PhD I’m getting loads of questions and hearing more pandemic conversation than I’ve heard in months. Here is my first post addressing some of the latest issues. At the top of the list is the omicron surge and what to…

By Amy Rogers, MD, PhD — Panic and outrage seem to drive most of our conversations today. The discovery of a highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variant dubbed Omicron fits right in with this pattern. Everybody needs to calm down. You might think this is an entirely new virus, an emergent threat like COVID-19 was in January…

By Amy Rogers, MD, PhD Amid all the anger, overreaction, and polarization surrounding the coronavirus pandemic these days, you may have missed some excellent news. New antiviral drug Way back in April 2020 ( link) I told you not to expect a cure for COVID-19, and explained why it’s so hard to create…