In a story about a Springfield man who is sick with COVID-19 and on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine at OHSU, David Zonies, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., explains ECMO “is essentially an artificial lung that supports the patient while their lungs are recovering.”

Noting Oregon had four confirmed flu cases thanks in part to flu vaccination efforts and public health precautions during the pandemic, Lorne Walker, M.D., said healthcare officials would be under tremendous more pressure right now if this flu season was more pronounced.

OHSU has given more than 70% of its available COVID vaccines to all of its staff and an internal email to staff from Peter Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., is quoted as saying “For many of us, it is an extraordinary privilege to be vaccinated far ahead of others who really need it.”

Peter Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., is joining the Hearing Health Foundation’s scientific advisory board.

OHSU Doernbecher and OHSU-PSU School of Public Health experts Dawn Nolt, M.D., M.P.H., Alex Foster, M.D., M.P.H, and Leslie Bienen, M.F.A., D.V.M, comment on the risks and benefits of resuming in-person education in Oregon. Nolt says: “There is more data that shows that schools closing and opening are not going to affect the course of the pandemic. For the betterment of our children's education, we should try to keep schools open."

Story quotes an editorial written by Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, regarding treating appendicitis through surgery or antibiotics.

In a story about the heightened health risk of night-shift workers, Andrew McHill, Ph.D., says, “When you’re doing things at nonoptimal times, such as sleeping during the day or being awake and eating at night, you’re misaligning those things. It leads to a whole host of issues because your body isn’t prepared for it.”

In a story about a new study examining disparities in the use of pulse oximeters for Black patients, Gopal Allada, M.D., says the paper “gave us new knowledge that we likely weren’t appreciating before.”

Story cites collaborative research involving the University of Washington and Jacob Raber, Ph.D., indicating that the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters the brain.

In the latest in a series of interviews, Dawn Nolt, M.D., answers questions from children. She says, “I would ask parents to answer the kids’ questions with calm and honesty, even if you don’t know the answer, and reassure the kids that everyone is working hard to keep people safe.”