The COVID “Next Normal”: Lessons from the NBA Bubble and Vaccine Modeling

Yonatan Grad, MD, PhD is the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and a member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned his MD and PhD at Harvard Medical School, trained in internal medicine at BWH and infectious diseases at BWH and Massachusetts General Hospital and did his postdoctoral work in the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Chan School. The Grad laboratory studies how pathogens evolve and spread through populations with the motivation of improving clinical and public health strategies for decreasing the burden of disease, with a particular focus on antibiotic resistance. The lab uses a variety of methods, including genomics, epidemiological tools and microbiology to define the dynamics of spread and characterize the genotypic and phenotypic diversity of the pathogens. His work on COVID-19 has included working on the MA COVID-19 task force, advising the NBA on the 2019-20 season restart, and research on viral trajectory during infection, spread within NYC, statistical frameworks for serological studies, projections of the pandemic and vaccine prioritization strategies, among others.