Petrie Dish

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.

COVID-19 numbers across Texas and country are now being driven by areas outside the big population centers. What might that mean for the coming months?

On this week’s Side Dish featuring extended interviews, Host Bonnie Petrie goes one-on-one with FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn.

On this week’s Petrie Dish, we take a look at what universities are doing to accommodate COVID-19, how students are responding and how local communities are affected.

On this week's episode of “Side Dish,” TPR Bioscience Medicine reporter Bonnie Petrie speaks with Kristin Urquiza and Fiana Garza Tulip, each of whom lost a parent to COVID-19.

The worst time of the year for viruses is at our doorstep. During the winter there are surges in adenoviruses, respiratory syncytial viruses — more commonly known as RSV — mild coronaviruses that cause colds, basically all the cold and flu-like illnesses you’d expect when the weather turns cold. And, of course, the actual flu, which can be an efficient killer in its own right.

On this week’s Petrie Dish, we explore what happened in Louisiana and Southeast Texas when Hurricane Laura landed — and what other hurricane hotspots like Florida, Alabama and Mississippi can learn from the deadly storm.

On this week’s Petrie Dish, we dive into the COVID-19 vaccine. First we answer: what is a vaccine? We've all gotten them, but have you ever wondered how they protect you from disease? Vaccine expert Joanne Turner gets into the nitty gritty of how vaccines work and walks us through the history of the first-ever vaccine, which treated another vicious virus that ravaged the world.

This week on Petrie Dish we talk with experts about why you feel how you feel, and what happens inside your body when you start to feel overwhelmed.

There's a lot of confusion and conflicting information about how COVID-19 affects kids and what that may mean for the safe reopening of schools. The lead researcher on a large study on how children experience COVID joined the show to sort out fact from fiction.

Texas is in the midst of a COVID-19 surge, but one area is in crisis. Hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley are near or at capacity, and EMS crews are stretched thin.

COVID-19 has exposed all Americans to an increased risk, even while doing the most mundane things: shopping at the grocery store, going to work, and taking walks. But it’s also exposed how communities of color are largely defenseless in the fight against an enemy that does not discriminate, but rather reveals to us our own discrimination.

In the last two weeks, some Texas counties implemented new face mask orders and Gov. Greg Abbott ordered all bars to shut down — before eventually issuing his own statewide mask order.

At first, COVID-19 appeared to be primarily a respiratory disease. But patients have reported a much wider range of symptoms than most viral diseases, leading some researchers to wonder if COVID-19 might, in some cases, also be a vascular disease. On this episode of Petrie Dish, TPR's podcast about the science of the pandemic, we explore the evidence for this and hear from coronavirus survivors ex...

As restaurants reopened and businesses relaxed mask-wearing rules, coronavirus hospitalizations have spiked in parts of the country that previously escaped the worst of the pandemic. This week on Petrie Dish, Texas Public Radio's podcast on the science of the pandemic, we take stock of one such state, Texas, and ask whether reopening the economy worked the way it was supposed to.

Covid-19 survivors must adjust to a wide array of lingering symptoms — could those side effects last a lifetime? This week on Petrie Dish, TPR's podcast about the science of the pandemic, two survivors tell their stories of halting recovery, and experts weigh in on what we know — and don't know — about the impact of the coronavirus on the body.

To rein in the invisible spread of the virus, a special branch of science has exploded: Contact tracing. It's the careful, sometimes intimate task of figuring out where the coronavirus might have spread in a community, and who is at risk. This week on Petrie Dish, TPR's podcast about the science of the pandemic, we hear from the disease detectives who are tracking down possible Covid-19 carriers b...

A huge swath of the American workforce is unable to work from home, and the repercussions of a crowded workplace, rather than one that is social-distanced, are gradually becoming clear. This week on Petrie Dish, Texas Public Radio's explainer podcast about the coronavirus, we hear from essential workers about their worries on the job and their struggle to stay safe.

In past viral outbreaks, pregnant women have been at heightened risk of severe symptoms, sometimes leading to birth defects and complications during delivery. This week on Petrie Dish, TPR's weekly explainer on the coronavirus, we ask what COVID-19 means for pregnancy, and how women are adjusting to the new uncertainties this pandemic has created.