The Health Variant

Omicron, Natural Immunity and Global Conspiracy

Health Correspondent Jeremy Fugleberg, speaks with immunologist Dr. Marc K. Jenkins of the University of Minnesota. With the omicron variant of COVID-19 rapidly spreading across the US, now seems like a good time to talk to an expert on how the body fights off disease, including the ins and outs of natural immunity. Also, we had to ask: Is a global scientific conspiracy even possible? Our host, NewsMD Health Correspondent Jeremy Fugleberg, speaks with immunologist Dr. Marc K. Jenkins of the University of Minnesota to discuss what we know, what we don't know and how the scientific community is built to figure out the difference. https://www.inforum.com/newsmd

Why Travel Nurses Matter (and Make Good Money)

They are health care's freelancers, reinforcements who have been crucial to helping short-handed nursing staffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. And you probably haven't even heard of them. In this episode, host and NewsMD Health Correspondent Jeremy Fugleberg talks with Professor Joshua Gottlieb, a nursing markets researcher at the University of Chicago, to get some answers about why traveling nurses are so important, and why they can get paid top dollar for what they do.

Why don't people trust perfectly good health advice?

No, this isn't a rant of a podcast. But it is a dig into recent research on a powerful factor that can shape how much you trust what should be uncontroversial health advice provided by a state health department, for example. Yes, this is really relevant during a politicized pandemic. Our host, NewsMD Health Correspondent Jeremy Fugleberg, speaks with lead researcher Dr. Rebekah Nagler, of the University of Minnesota, to break it all down.

The American Heart Association Called...

We get a lot of press releases and story pitches, but it's not often the American Heart Association essentially calls and says, "Hey, we're worried about you, let's talk." So we took them up on their offer. They were looking at some troubling statistics in the Dakotas, especially North Dakota. AHA President Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones joins the podcast to give us a little check-up, and some encouragement about a little something you might have heard about.

What Makes Football Safer for Young Heads?

Groundbreaking research from Sanford Research provides big insight into what could make youth football more safe, at least in terms of head impacts. Host and NewsMD Health Correspondent Jeremy Fugleberg talks with Dr. Thayne Munce of Sanford Research about the results of his newly published study of a junior football team, and the big insights gained from tracking years of head hits. Read about the research here [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34310490/].