Our older Middle Schoolers gathered in the Mary Eliot Chapel to hear from current parent Dr. Hilary Babcock. Dr. Babcock is a professor of medicine at Washington University and serves as Medical Director for the Departments of BJC Infection Prevention & Epidemiology Consortium and Medical Director, Occupational Health, for Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s Hospitals. She specializes in infectious diseases, infection control, occupational health, hand hygiene, nosocomial influenza and more.
The students were curious about infectious diseases due to the recent news of the coronavirus, in addition to hearing about flu season. Dr. Babcock shared what causes infectious diseases, how they are transferred and how to prevent them. She focused on vaccination and influenza since it’s flu season. Students learned that influenza viruses change over time, and vaccines must be updated each year to include the viruses that doctors think will be most common. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 173 million doses of the flu vaccine have been distributed.
Thank you to Dr. Babcock for spending time with our Middle Schoolers. We’re pretty sure there has been an increase in handwashing in Danforth Hall!