MEDICINE: An Infectious Disease Specialist Discusses COVID-19 Testing, Immunity, and Treatments | Jennifer Babik, MD

COVID-19: Commonsense Conversations on the Coronavirus Pandemic

In today’s episode (recorded March 25, 2020), Dr. Ted O’Connell speaks with Dr. Jennifer Babik about the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics in this interview are focused on the disease itself with questions being answered such as: - What do we know about the incubation period of COVID-19?- If someone becomes infected with COVID-19 and they recover, can they be considered immune or are they able to become reinfected? - Can the COVID-19 virus mutate or develop other strains such as we see in seasonal flu?- What are the treatment options that have been used? Which methods are the most successful? Dr. Jennifer Babik specializes in clinical infectious diseases at UC San Francisco and has a particular focus on infections in immunocompromised individuals. Dr. Babik received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and a PhD in Physiologic Sciences from the University of Oxford before receiving her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Babik then completed her residency training in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases, both at UC San Francisco.Dr. Babik is very interested in medical education and serves as the Associate Program Director for Subspecialty Education for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and as the Assistant Program Director for Curriculum for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship at UC San Francisco. She regularly gives lectures for students, residents, and fellows as well as pharmacy and dental students. Dr. Babik’s primary interests in medical education are creating innovative ways to teach clinical infectious diseases to learners at all levels, developing best practices for effective teaching by consultants, and curriculum development for subspecialty education within internal medicine residency training. Dr. Babik has been the recipient of multiple teaching awards. You can follow Dr. Babik on Twitter (@jen_babik)!Your host is Dr. Ted O’Connell, family physician, educator, and author of numerous textbooks and peer-reviewed articles. He holds academic appointments at UCSF, UC Davis, and Drexel University's medical schools and also founded the Kaiser Permanente Napa-Solano Community Medicine and Global Health Fellowship, the first program in the U.S. to formally combine both community medicine and global health. Follow Ted on Instagram (@tedoconnellmd) and Twitter (@tedoconnell)! Submit Your Questions for the PodcastSend an email to [e-mail] or check out covidpodcast.comWhat Can You Do? You can help spread commonsense about COVID-19 by supporting this podcast. Hit subscribe, leave a positive review, and share it with your friends especially on social media. We can each do our part to ensure that scientifically accurate information about the pandemic spreads faster than rumors or fears. Remember to be vigilant, but remain calm. For the most trusted and real time information on COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic, both the CDC and WHO have dedicated web pages to keep the public informed. The information presented in this podcast is intended for educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Producers: Madison Linden and Christopher Breitigan.Executive Producer: Patrick C. Beeman, MD

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