Current and former CDC officials spoke of a man with a unique ability to solve medical mysteries by studying tissues for the signatures of the infectious agent at play. “He really was kind of the secret weapon for a lot of what was done at CDC on emerging diseases,” said James LeDuc, who recently retired as director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Tom Ksiazek, a former CDC colleague and current professor of microbiology at UTMB’s Galveston National Laboratory, said Zaki pioneered the use of immunohistochemistry to identify foreign proteins in samples sent to the CDC, to help determine the underlying pathogens for a particular outbreak and understand the disease they caused. According to Ksiazek, Zaki’s reputation for cracking hard cases meant that the CDC has been enlisted to help solve outbreaks that other laboratories couldn’t.

In the Vaccine Smarts column, Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp discuss the need for rubella immunizations. “We don’t hear much about rubella anymore, but it’s the most common cause of vaccine-preventable birth defects on the planet.”

Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel write about how The American Revolution made smallpox spread more likely in this country. “Soldiers from England and Germany were arriving in large numbers, and recruits from all the colonies were joining the Continental Army. Soon after taking command in the summer of 1775, Washington assured the President of the Continental Congress that he would be ‘particularly attentive to the least symptoms of the smallpox,’ with plans to quarantine those suspected of having the disease in a special hospital.” Inoculations were also part of Washington’s strategy.

Dr. Victor S. Sierpina wrote about how to emphasize the health effects of gardening. “At our Family Medicine Stewart Road Clinic, for example, Dr. Sagar Kamprath has been leading a group of student and community volunteers to build and grow a community garden and green space, an island of beauty, peace and nourishment before and after their doctor visits. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Texas Medical Branch has a large community garden lovingly cared for by volunteer seniors.”

Dr. Megan Berman, an internist at UTMB’s Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, has two partially vaccinated kids, ages 8 and 9. The family skipped their usual Thanksgiving flight to Wisconsin this year, opting instead for a drive to grandma and grandpa’s house in Texas. “If it was just me, I would be comfortable getting on a flight, knowing my risk is really low as a vaccinated person,” she said. “But we are going to be driving this year. It’s safer for the kids.”

Dr. Ben Raimer discussed his appointment as the leader of UTMB, the challenges of battling COVID-19 and his three decades at UTMB as a student, physician and administrator.

The University of Texas Medical Branch is requiring its nearly 18,000 employees, students and contract workers to get their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 or go on leave, officials announced Friday. Medicare and Medicaid payments make up about a third of the medical branch’s revenues, roughly $685 million a year, said Dr. Timothy Harlin, executive vice president and CEO of the medical branch health system.

The American Association of Medical Assistants installed Sherry Bogar, CMA (AAMA), CN-BC, as a 2021-2022 Trustee at its annual conference in Houston. Bogar works in the UTMB Health breast cancer and surgical oncology clinic in League City and is certified as a breast cancer and oncology patient navigator. She is a founder of the medical assistant advisory council at UTMB Health. “Medical Assistants have worked for years to prove that they are an essential part of the health care team that provides compassionate and quality patient care,” Bogar said. “The past two years in the COVID-19 era have proven how invaluable we are to every part of healthcare and how many roles we are able to fill.”

Engineers have determined proper heating will eliminate the virus that causes COVID-19 from a standard disposable surgical mask without degrading the mask itself. The work by Rice University engineers and collaborators at the University of Texas Medical Branch shows masks can be decontaminated and reused multiple times before degrading.

By finding this virus early, scientists now have time to study it, create tools to diagnose it and understand what it might take to stop it. Although it's not a cause for deep concern at this time, there's always the risk the virus could evolve and become a bigger problem. “We need to find these novel viruses well before they fully adapt to humans and become a pandemic problem,” wrote epidemiologist Gregory Gray, from the University of Texas Medical Branch, in an email to NPR. “Fortunately, today we have the tools to both detect and evaluate the risk of such novel viruses. We just need the political will and financial support to do so.”