7PM ET | 6PM CT | 5PM MT | 4PM PT
From the virus that keeps on keeping on, we bring you another event on COVID-19.
On 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization designated B.1.1.529, better known as Omicron, a SARS-CoV-2 “variant of concern”.
But what is a variant? Why are we hearing about it? And do we really need to be that concerned?
We invite you to hear from our two experts who will try and answer these questions and more.
Meet our speakers
Dr. Michael Teng
Dr. Teng received his PhD in Immunology from the University of Chicago, then went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship on viral pathogenesis at The Scripps Research Institute.
He was a Research fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) where he studied vaccine development.
He was an Assistant Professor at Penn State (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), before moving to the University of South Florida, where he is currently an Associate Professor, at the Morsani College of Medicine, in the Department of Internal Medicine.
He’ll be talking about “What's different about the SARS CoV-2 Omicron variant?”. Discussing how Omicron differs from previous variants of SARS CoV-2 and what that means in terms of immune responses due to infection or vaccination.
Follow Mike and his work on his website, and on Twitter.
Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis
Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis is the Director of Health for the City of St. Louis.
She received her medical degree from Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health Degree from Case Western Reserve University. She completed her internal medicine residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. She went on to complete her Infectious Diseases fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), also completing a one year dedicated non-ACGME HIV fellowship and a two-year dedicated Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) fellowship.
Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis is now a national and international medical contributor on COVID-19. Her career passions include community engagement, the care of people living with HIV and the impact of COVID-19 infection in marginalized populations.
She’ll be talking to us about CoVID-19 and Local Health Departments: to discuss the impact of CoVID-19 on marginalized populations and within the city of St. Louis. She will address their response, particularly in response to the new Omicron variant.
You can follow her work on Twitter.
