Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, is our kind of public well being skilled.
As an epidemiologist, she research patterns and causes of illness in public well being (e.g., Covid), and he or she’s tremendous obsessed with sharing evidence-based info with anybody who’s .
Her free weekly e-newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist, breaks down difficult public well being details in a pleasant, simple to know method. She began the e-newsletter throughout Covid, and it shortly grew to become the go-to useful resource for dependable info through the pandemic. Right now, about 230,000 folks in 100 international locations subscribe to Your Native Epidemiologist, and Time journal named Jetelina one of many 100 most influential people in health in 2024.
Since Covid, Jetelina’s e-newsletter has advanced to incorporate completely different public well being subjects, together with vitamin and new analysis. Right here’s our interview with Jetelina and her ideas on the chook flu and the brand new pointers for what’s thought of a “wholesome” meals.
Our interview follows, edited for readability and size.
HealthyWomen: Your web site says, “Through the day, I put on many hats, together with scientific guide to a lot of organizations, together with the CDC. At evening, I write this text.” Why is it necessary to you to place this text out?
Dr. Jetelina: I stumbled upon doing this text through the pandemic — and I did not suppose it will be wanted to be executed for very lengthy, however right here I’m 5 years into it, and it is nonetheless alive and effectively — and it’s filling a large hole.
I imply, there’s not sufficient folks being attentive to issues on the bottom, and there’s a number of confusion and questions that must be answered in a well timed and comprehensible method. And so, I am exploring that area.
Read: 15 Minutes With: Kizzmekia S Corbett, Ph.D., Talks About Omicron >>
HealthyWomen: We all know that you simply’re working to get the details on the market about why vaccines are so necessary. What do you need to say to individuals who nonetheless have issues in regards to the Covid vaccine?
Dr. Jetelina: I feel that there’s going to be much more questions on vaccines — even past Covid — as we enter this new period in U.S. politics, and I feel it’s OK to have questions. I would like folks to have questions. However what I am most involved about is folks getting evidence-based info. What we all know from the vaccines in the marketplace is that they’re far safer than getting the illness themselves — whether or not it is Covid or measles or whooping cough — you identify it. Vaccines are the perfect instrument we’ve got in our toolkit to dwell a wholesome and affluent life.
HealthyWomen: We’re in the midst of flu, RSV and Covid season. Is it too late to get vaccinated now (asking for a pal)?
Dr. Jetelina: We’re within the top of respiratory season proper now, and it is really not too late to get vaccinated. If we’re peaking now or subsequent week, that also means we’ve got to go down the wave as effectively, and flu is infamous for being drawn out as a result of completely different strains turn out to be dominant later in spring.
So, no, it’s not too late to get vaccinated — particularly for flu and Covid.
Read: Is it Covid, RSV or the Flu? >>
HealthyWomen: Earlier this 12 months, an individual in Louisiana died from the H5N1 chook flu. How involved ought to we be in regards to the chook flu?
Dr. Jetelina: To the common American, that is one thing that you have to be being attentive to, but it surely’s not a five-alarm emergency prefer it was with Covid. And there is not a lot folks can do, proper? Don’t drink unpasteurized milk. Don’t contact wild birds and animals that look sick. Proper now, it isn’t an emergency and danger is definitely not uniform. [Editor’s Note: People who come in contact with birds, poultry and livestock have the most risk of exposure.]
HealthyWomen: Are you able to speak somewhat bit in regards to the function the American weight loss plan performs in power illness, particularly for girls?
Dr. Jetelina: Weight loss program is extremely necessary to maintain us wholesome. It is one of many issues that assist with our immune techniques and having a dietary, balanced weight loss plan is among the issues we are able to do for our well being.
HealthyWomen: In a current e-newsletter, you talked about that beginning in February, if an organization needs to assert their meals product is “wholesome,” it should show two issues: The meals accommodates a specific amount of one of many 5 meals teams, and the meals cannot exceed added sugar, sodium or saturated fats limits based mostly on the meals and its usually consumed quantities. What are your ideas on the change, and do you suppose it would have an effect on what folks suppose is wholesome to eat?
Dr. Jetelina: It could. I feel that there is a number of completely different levers that may be pulled. For instance behavioral levers, like having a warning system on meals identical to we’ve got for cigarette packs may definitely assist with the schooling round what’s nutrient-dense meals and what’s not.
It’s totally complicated for lots of people on the market. I feel what I am most enthusiastic about although, is the oblique levers that we’ll have on corporations: to do higher at creating and distributing wholesome meals. And so, I feel will probably be an oblique instrument to maintain corporations and business accountable.
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