COVID-19 Update with Dr. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins : Omicron Variant, Testing, and Treatment

Pre-recorded and released January 26, 2022

COVID-19 Update with Dr. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins : Omicron Variant, Testing, and Treatment

Dr. Bill Detmer, CEO of Unbound Medicine, hosts Dr. Paul Auwaerter, Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for a 2022 update about the current state of the pandemic with emphasis on the omicron variant, treatment, boosters/vaccines, testing, and what we might expect in the future. Topics Discussed:

  • Trends and expectations of virus variants including omicron
  • Vaccine/booster effectiveness, distribution, and reluctance
  • Latest treatment options
  • What can we expect in 2022?

YouTube video.

PRESENTATION

00:00

Introduction Bill Detmer MD, President of Unbound Medicine, and Paul Auwaerter MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

01:13

What’s new with the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant?

05:00

Approaching Clinical Care - Disease severity by age and comorbidities

05:47

Why omicron causes less serious disease

08:00

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant

10:33

Summary of COVID-19 preventative agents and therapeutics

12:57

Oral antivirals used to treat COVID-19. Nirmtrelvir, Ritonavir, Paxlovid EUA, Molnupirpiravir, Remdesivir, Sotrovimab. Drug Interactions, Drug Contraindications, Renal Dosing, and Packaging. Tables, Charts, and Algorithms.

29:24

How do you advise generalists on the best ways to handle the complexity of the therapies available?

34:47

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis

QUESTION & ANSWER

37:53

What do you [Dr. Paul Auwaerter] see the COVID-19 situation changing over the next several months?

42:00

Is it a surprise to see the omnicron variant behave in a similar way to the common cold coronavirus? Do you foresee a variant of high consequence [that escapes immune protection] emerging?

44:46

What have we learned from administration of other vaccines that may apply to this virus?

47:45

Can you reflect on the environment for healthcare workers over the past two years, coping with the extremely difficult situation of the pandemic?

FEEDBACK APPRECIATED

Brief Survey

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Johns Hopkins Antibiotic (ABX) Guide: https://www.hopkinsguides.com​

Unbound Medicine: https://www.unboundmedicine.com​

About the Presenter

Paul Auwaerter, MD, MBA

Johns Hopkins - Dr. Auwaerter

Paul G. Auwaerter is the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine serving as the Clinical Director for the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Center for Environmental Infectious Diseases.

He serves as the Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Point of Care-Information Technology (POC-IT) Center producing the Johns Hopkins Guides – Antibiotic (ABX) (Antibiotic), HIV, Osler, Psychiatry, and Diabetes Guides. In 2018, Dr. Auwaerter served as President for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the largest professional society worldwide related to infectious diseases.

William M. Detmer, MD, MSc

Unbound Medicine - Dr. Detmer

Bill Detmer is CEO of Unbound Medicine. He entered medical school at UC-San Francisco the year the first Macintosh computer was launched and soon found himself using it to organize the reams of basic science and clinical knowledge he needed to learn. That led to a career-long pursuit to solve the "knowledge problem” in healthcare – despite the wide availability of high-quality medical information and advanced technologies for delivery, two-thirds of questions that arise in daily clinical practice are never answered.

Bill’s pursuit of knowledge solutions has traversed becoming a general internist and faculty member at UCSF, completing training at Stanford in the nascent field of medical informatics, developing the first web-based search interface to the world’s medical literature and commercializing it with Ovid Technologies, and starting Unbound Medicine 21 years ago. Today, Unbound Medicine partners with medical and nursing associations, 500+ healthcare institutions, and over 6 million health professionals worldwide to deliver knowledge where and when it is needed on the user’s device of choice.

See Also

Last updated: January 27, 2022