Media Coverage

Prenatal services may partially affect stillbirth and infant mortality rates after birth, but the study left out key information that impacts pregnancy outcome, said Dr. Priya Rajan, associate professor of maternal fetal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and chief of diagnostic ultrasound at Northwestern Medicine.

As a neurosurgeon regularly treating glioblastomas, Dr. Adam Sonabend followed with interest the rise of immunotherapy, a new way to help cancer patients utilize the power of their own immune systems.
But until now, not much promise has been shown for patients with glioblastomas, an aggressive type of brain tumor that has no cure.

That concern is shared by Dr. Colin Franz, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who reviewed the findings.

While researchers try to define this problem, between 0.5% and 1% of non-hospitalized COVID patients develop at least one long-haul symptom, he said. “Given the vast number of people who had COVID worldwide, this represents millions of people,” said Franz, who is also a physician-scientist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.

Whether the variant will spread as quickly in countries with higher vaccination rates is still to be determined, said Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, the bioinformatics director of the Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution at the Harvey Institute for Global Health and a research assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“It might not even establish in other countries,” Lorenzo-Redondo said. “It’s still too early to know if this variant is going to spread. Maybe other factors, like higher vaccination, will stop this.”

Dr. Neil J. Stone, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, who praised the thoughtfulness and expertise of the guidance committee, said in an interview, “There’s no such thing as one diet that fits all, but there are principles to form the basis of diets that fit everyone.”

Study leader Alexis Demonbreun, a cell biologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the data demonstrate that no matter how well protected a vaccinated person may think she is, getting a booster shot is likely to increase her neutralizing antibodies — and with it, her immunity — considerably. And because scientists expect large antibody responses to create more durable immunity, the protection afforded by the booster should last longer than the initial two-shot regimen did.

Dr. Dinee Simpson, a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, recalled a troubling example from a committee meeting early in her surgical training.[…]Hispanic patients are about half as likely as their white peers to receive kidney donations from family or friends — a gap that Dr. Juan Carlos Caicedo, an adult and pediatric transplant surgeon who directs the Hispanic Transplant Program at Northwestern Medicine, is working to close.

“Unfortunately, PE can strike people at all stages of life, from the young and healthy to the older and not as healthy,” said Dr. Karlyn Martin, an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“Because these antibody levels are so robust, the booster could potentially give us protection for a longer duration than what we saw for two doses of the vaccine,” study co-author Alexis Demonbreun said in a Northwestern University news release. […]Co-author Thomas McDade said the findings are relevant to anyone who is considering a booster shot.

“This is too late,” said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a professor of infectious diseases. “What is the problem in getting the best treatment out there quickly?”