SCIENCE: COVID-19 Vaccine Development for Pregnant Women, Infants, and Children | Sallie Permar, MD, PhD

COVID-19: Commonsense Conversations on the Coronavirus Pandemic

The interview in this episode was recorded on March 30, 2020. In the episode, Dr. Ted O'Connell and Dr. Sallie Permar discuss various aspects of COVID-19 vaccine development for traditionally vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, infants, and children. Dr. Permar provides insight into what coronavirus vaccine development looks like now and what it may become in the future. Some questions covered include:Are the differences in rates of infection in infants and children related to how the virus attaches in their bodies, differences in their immune systems, or other factors?How does work developing vaccines against neonatal viral pathogens such as HIV and CMV relate to the development of a COVID vaccine?How does this challenge relate to the challenge of predicting which strains of influenza to include in the vaccine each year? Are there concerns about COVID-19 mutating or developing other strains?Sallie Permar is a physician scientist focusing on the prevention and treatment of neonatal viral infections. She leads a research laboratory investigating immune protection against vertical transmission of neonatal viral pathogens, has made important contributions to the development of vaccines for prevention of vertical HIV transmission, and is leading the development of HIV vaccine strategies in preclinical maternal/infant nonhuman primate models and translation of this work for clinical vaccine trials in infants. Dr. Permar has a PhD in Microbiology/Immunology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and completed her clinical training in pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital in Boston. She has received multiple prestigious investigator awards and was inducted into the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM). She also serves on the board of the National CMV Foundation. She is an institutional and national leader in physician-scientist training, serving as the Associate Dean of Physician-Scientist Development at Duke University Medical School and was selected by the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs (AMSPDC) as the next Director of the national Pediatric Scientist Development Program in 2019. 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. Check Ted out 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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