Career Development : Calendar

Understanding the path to a COVID-19 vaccine

05/28/20

Recorded May 28

The race to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is picking up speed. There are more than 100 studies and clinical trials with early promising results. President Trump predicted in mid May there will be “hundreds of millions of doses” of vaccine by the end of 2020.

But what is hype and what is real? How can journalists responsibly cover these vaccine studies? A vaccine researcher and AHCJ’s core topic leader on medical studies will talk about how you can write about this topic and where to look for the next story.

There will be time for Q&A during the webcast. To ensure your question is addressed, you can submit it ahead of time here.

• Maria Elena Bottazzi, Ph.D., associate dean, National School of Tropical Medicine; professor, Pediatrics & Molecular Virology & Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital

• Tara Haelle, AHCJ topic leader/medical studies

• Moderator: Bara Vaida, AHCJ topic leader/infectious diseases

Maria Elena Bottazzi is a microbiologist, currently Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine as well as Distinguished Professor at Baylor University and Editor-in-Chief of Springer's Current Tropical Medicine Reports. Along with Peter Hotez, Bottazzi runs the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. The center develops vaccines for neglected tropical diseases and other emerging and infectious diseases.

Tara Haelle guides journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enable them to translate the evidence into accurate information that their readers can grasp. Haelle is a freelance journalist and multimedia photographer who has particularly focused on medical studies over the past five years. She particularly specializes in reporting on vaccines, pediatrics, maternal health, obesity, nutrition and mental health. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post, Politico, Slate, NOVA, Wired and Science, and she writes regularly for HealthDay, Frontline Medical Communications, Forbes and her parenting science blog Red Wine & Apple Sauce. She's co-author of the 2016 evidence-based parenting book, “The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child’s First Four Years.”