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Sallie Permar: Who Are Your Trusted Sources on COVID-19?

Professor of immunology, pathology, pediatrics, molecular genetics and microbiology Sallie Permar
Professor of immunology, pathology, pediatrics, molecular genetics and microbiology Sallie Permar

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the question of where to turn for solid information has never been more important. 

Many Duke experts are being approached now for their expertise and insight. But where do they turn for guidance and the latest information? In this ongoing series, Duke Today asks Duke experts to share their preferred sources. 

Dr. Sallie Permar is a physician scientist who focuses on prevention and treatment of neonatal viral infections. A professor of immunology, pathology, pediatrics, molecular genetics and microbiology and associate dean for physician-scientist development, she recently wrote about the effect of the pandemic on medical research

To stay abreast of how the infectious diseases field is responding to the novel coronavirus, she  consults a mix of websites, podcasts and social media.  

PODCASTS

•    This Week in Virology, hosted by Vincent Racaniello and fellow virologists, has featured recent guest hosts who are stars of COVID-19 research, such as Drs. Daniel Griffin, Ralph Baric, Mark Denison, Stanley Perlman and Christian Drosten.

•    Immune, hosted by immunologists Cindy Leifer, Stephanie Langel, Vincent Racaniello, carried a recent two-part series on COVID-19 immunology with Dr. Brianne Barker that was especially compelling.

•    I also listen to COVID-19: Commonsense Conversations on the Coronavirus Pandemic, with host Dr. Ted O’Connell, a family physician and writer. 

WEBSITES

•    For the latest on numbers by region, I check Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 map.

•    COVID-19 guidelines can be found on the Centers for Disease Control website.  

•    For the latest on viral sequence dynamics, I check gisaid.org.

•    For recent COVID-19 research reports, I consult bioxiv.org  and medrxiv.org. The Twitter sources below provide real-time critical reviews of the newly posted manuscripts.

•    For the latest on epidemiology and case series reports, I consult:
    -    the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and
    -    World Health Organization situation reports.

•    And for compilations of the latest research I check:
    -    Duke Pharmacist Elizabeth Dodds-Ashley’s Daily Digest. 
    -    The American Association of Medical College’s Novel Coronavirus Update by chief scientific officer and former Duke faculty member Dr. Ross McKinney.
    -    Publons compilation of latest research manuscripts, which includes some crowd-sourced reviews.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Finally, great sources to follow on Twitter include:
@NIAIDNews; @CEPIvaccines; 
NIH Vaccine Research Center scientist Kizzmekia Corbett (@KizzyPhD);
The laboratory of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Dr. Ralph Baric (@Baric_Lab);
The laboratory of Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Mark Denison (@Denisonlab);
Florian Krammer, an immunologist who is developing antibody assays (@florian_krammer); Virologists Dr. Benhur Lee (@VirusWhisperer) and Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen);
COVID-19 drug developer Timothy Sheahan (@timothysheahan);
David Martinez, a former Ph.D. student who is now testing vaccine and therapeutic antibodies in the lab of Ralph Baric (@David_RMartinez).