Media Coverage

“It is community spread everywhere,” said Jaline Gerardin, an epidemiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. In part, the greater numbers are the result of the increased availability of testing, she said. But the main problem was allowing the virus to simmer at fairly high levels throughout the summer, particularly among young people who congregated in bars and restaurants against expert advice.

Donald Trump’s current term doesn’t end until Jan. 20. In the 86 days until then, 100,000 more Americans will likely die from the virus if the president doesn’t shift course, said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, echoing estimates from other public health experts.

It’s also especially important to get a flu shot this year, according to Dr. Sadiya Khan, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “By getting a flu vaccine, you not only protect yourself, you boost your own immune system and protect others from the flu as well as a more severe illness if you were to contract both influenza and COVID-19,” Khan said in a university news release

Bessey Geevarghese, a pediatric infectious disease physician for Lurie Children’s at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, tells Yahoo Life that the numbers are reflective of what’s happening in communities as a whole. “Levels are much higher [in children] since overall cases are going up,” she says. “Children are most likely to get COVID-19 from household contacts.”

Many people are experiencing fear and trepidation around the 2020 election. That state of heightened stress and anxiety has a name that was coined after the 2016 election. Clinicians call it election stress disorder. “Of course, that’s not a clinical diagnosis, but really a term that’s being used just to capture what we’re seeing right now,” said Inger Burnett-Zeigler, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

[VIDEO] Dr. Dan Doebler, a licensed clinical professional counselor, talks about ways to fight against Seasonal Affective Disorder this winter.

[VIDEO] Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at Northwestern Medicine, talks about the varying impacts of COVID-19 on patients’ hearts.

She enrolled in a research study at the Neuro Covid-19 Clinic at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, one of several clinics across the country aiming to find solutions for patients. Some symptoms could be collateral damage from the body’s immune response during the acute infection, researchers said. Some patients might harbor an undetectable reservoir of infectious virus or have bits of noninfectious virus in some cells that trigger an immune response, they said.

Even physicians are dealing with anxiety, some for the first time, says Joan Anzia, psychiatrist and professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She often counsels those in the health care field and says this sense of mortality is even hitting them. “It’s been decades since physicians have had to endanger their own lives and put their own life at risk just by going to work,” she tells me when I call her.

Susan Mitchell, MD, a board-certified ob-gyn at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, explained that the rate of effectiveness is a direct result of the way Phexxi works. “It doesn’t necessarily kill the sperm,” Dr. Mitchell told POPSUGAR. “It just decreases their motility, so it’s harder for them to reach and fertilize an egg.”