There has been a low uptake of the new (available since early September ’22) bivalent booster COVID-19 vaccine in the USA (~15% of the population as of 10th January 2023). In this work, we set to ask the reasons why people are, or are not, electing to take the bivalent booster. One key finding from analyzing survey data is that many people did not know about the new bivalent booster, or did not know they were eligible — suggesting more public health communication is necessary to promote uptake of the new vaccines. You can read more about it here.
Paper on the effectiveness of Georgia Tech’s Covid-19 surveillance testing program published in Epidemiology
In early 2020, members of the Weitz Group were part of a dedicated team of Georgia Tech researchers, engineers, campus leaders, and staff members working to establish Georgia Tech’s surveillance testing program. The goal of the program was to use testing to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and increase campus safety.
A collaborative paper on the effectiveness of the surveillance testing program is out now in Epidemiology. In addition to Prof. Weitz, research scientist Stephen Beckett, Ph.D., collaborative group member Conan Zhao, and former member Ashley Coenen, Ph.D. were involved in the project.
Read more about the paper in an article published by the Georgia Tech Research News.
Photo credit: Allison Carter.
New paper published in Ecology Letters
Look for our new paper out in Ecology Letters, titled “Leapfrog dynamics in phage-bacteria coevolution revealed by joint analysis of cross-infection phenotypes and whole genome sequencing.” This work is was done in collaboration with researchers from the University of California in San Diego as well as former group members Shengyun Peng and Chun Yin Leung.
New paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution
In collaboration with 13 other institutions, new work investigating changes in microbial metabolism with the diel cycle has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. Led by Prof. Weitz, group members Daniel Muratore, who served as one of three co-first authors, Stephen Beckett, Ph.D., and Rogelio Rodriguez-Gonzalez contributed to this work.
Read more about the paper in an article published by the Georgia Tech College of Sciences, or get the perspective of the paper’s authors in this Behind the Paper blog post.
Photo credit: Tara Clemente.
New paper on assessing population immunity to Covid-19 published in Annals of Epidemiology
In collaboration with Benjamin Lopman‘s group at Emory University, our recent work entitled “A framework for monitoring population immunity to SARS-CoV-2” was published in Annals of Epidemiology. The proposed framework suggests combining records of vaccinations and natural infections to assess immunity to Covid-19 at the population level. A dashboard was also created to track estimates of population immunity at the state level.
