Top all-time · #1065
Katelyn Jetelina
Personal blog · yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.comhealthscience
Katelyn Jetelina writes Your Local Epidemiologist, a personal blog at yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com about health and science. Since 2021, 63 different Hacker News readers have linked it 77 times, most often “Local Epidemiologist”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 10 of 37 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Katelyn Jetelina's Substack for data-driven COVID-19 analysis: variants such as Omicron, vaccine and mask evidence, testing, and research roundups, often as a trusted source.
- Recommended for · 10 comments
- Called 'level headed', 'informative' and 'reliable'; a good read on antigen tests; 'great job' on Simpson's paradox.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 37 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Providing a direct line of "translated" public health science to you, so you can take action for your community's health. Click to read Your Local Epidemiologist, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Most-linked posts?
- Local Epidemiologist5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-08-29
- New Concerning Variant: B.1.1.5294 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-11-26
- Omicron Update: Dec 223 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-12-22
- Omicron Update: Dec 132 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-12-13
- /p/how-vaccines-reduce-transmission2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-11-23
- Go get your vaccine, especially with Omicron2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-11-28
- Covid State of Affairs: Jan 242 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-01-24
- /p/there-is-good-news2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-01-06
- Omicron: We're Getting (Some) Answers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-12-08
- Our health care system has become utterly insane2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-11-13
What Hacker News says?
Vaccines were never expected to stop the pandemic. They were expected to stop people from dying from the pandemic. They are doing that. So far, vaccines have saved 1.1M Americans from dying from covid and saved 10.3M Americans from needing hospital treatment for covid [0]. Preventable Covid-19 cases can lead to higher health and life insurance rates. Firing employees who refuse the vaccine is smart business. Vaccine…
Comment linking /p/there-is-good-news
on “More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’”Submitted New Concerning Variant: B.1.1.529 as a story · 249 points
HN discussionhere's a good read on the details for anyone wanting a nerdy amount of details for antigen testing https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/antigen-tests...
Comment linking /p/antigen-tests-real-world-data?justPublished=true
on “Examining the covidtests.gov architecture”Submitted Omicron Update: Nov 27 as a story · 144 points
HN discussionAn epidemiologist's take - https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/polio-an-unfo...
Comment linking /p/polio-an-unfortunate-reminder-of
on “Polio Detected in US”Submitted Omicron Update, Dec 2 as a story · 63 points
HN discussionHospitalizations are not flat. They're doubling roughly every week [1], and are at close to 50% of their Delta peak [2]. [1] https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NICD-COVID... [2] https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/omicron-updat...
Comment linking /p/omicron-update-dec-17
on “Omicron variant was 73% of U.S. covid cases last week”Submitted Emergency rooms are not okay as a story · 57 points
HN discussionThere's a really great epidemiologist who has been publishing data-driven articles on substack on the subject of COVID, from samples from waste water to control groups across the world. Her insights are often super valuable and she only speaks to what she knows and the rest goes off of data she comes across. I'd really recommend her thoughts on anything COVID-related https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What hyper-focused industry newsletters do you enjoy?”Submitted Why did the Pfizer young kids trial fail? as a story · 32 points
HN discussionI think that stat came from a chart in this article https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/a-quick-note-...
Comment linking /p/a-quick-note-on-masks-and-cdc-guidance
on “Switching to an N95 mask gives a 75x boost in Covid protection”Submitted Omicron Update: Dec 13 as a story · 15 points
HN discussionGiven the large amount of mutation in this variant, theory point to high likelihood of this being evolved from a single individual with compromised immune system, likely a person in advanced stages of HIV infection. Source: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/new-concernin... Globally speaking, most of the HIV positives live in sub-saharan Africa, with South Africa having 17.30% of adults carrying HIV, an…
Comment linking /p/new-concerning-variant-b11529
on “Update on Omicron”Submitted Omicron: We're Getting (Some) Answers as a story · 11 points
HN discussionThat's not wrong, but this time it was scientists who were ringing the bell. This write-up [1] explains the particular mutations in Omicron in more detail. Basically, Omicron appears to be a perfect storm of various concerning mutations that had appeared in individual strains before - now all assembled into one strain. Add to that a sudden, unusual spike in infections right where the variant is found and I guess thi…
Comment linking /p/new-concerning-variant-b11529
on “Update on Omicron”Submitted Go get your vaccine, especially with Omicron as a story · 8 points
HN discussionI think this might be the most level headed information I’ve seen so far: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/go-get-your-v...
Comment linking /p/go-get-your-vaccine-especially-with
on “Update on Omicron”Submitted Long Covid happens in 4% of infections as a story · 7 points
HN discussionPretty good one here: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/omicron-updat...
Comment linking /p/omicron-update-dec-22
on “South Africa’s omicron coronavirus outbreak subsides as fast as it grew”Submitted Pan-Coronavirus “Super” Vaccine as a story · 7 points
HN discussion> According to the article, in the only large randomized studies that have been performed, masking showed little, if any benefit. I have this open in another tab. It links to three studies that show masks in school do work: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/mask-requirem... > most studies, including WHO, show that lockdowns were counter productive, and could result in increased transmission. Do you have…
Comment linking /p/mask-requirements-in-school-work
on “The case against masks at school”Submitted Our health care system has become utterly insane as a story · 6 points
HN discussion> ... preliminary evidence WHO based their recommendation on earlier this week: People who have previously had COVID-19 could become reinfected more easily with Omicron. https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/omicron-updat...
Comment linking /p/omicron-update-dec-4
on “Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado”Submitted Bullets in the Windows as a story · 6 points
HN discussionYep, especially Omicron. > This is the first evidence to show us that the rate of reinfection with Omicron is high—3 times higher than Delta. In other words, infection-induced immunity is not doing a great job at stopping Omicron. https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/omicron-updat...
Comment linking /p/omicron-update-dec-4
on “Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado”Submitted Omicron Update: Dec 22 as a story · 5 points
HN discussionPlus, to preemptively address any assumptions that Dr Jetelina may have an optimistic bias, compare her " There is good news " article from 5th January, which is based on what we now know, with her article from 26th November when Omicron (initially called "Nu") was first detected: " New Concerning Variant: B.1.1.529 " https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/new-concernin... At the time, little was known about…
Comment linking /p/new-concerning-variant-b11529
on “Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado”Submitted H5N1 update: We have to do better, faster as a story · 4 points
HN discussionDr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD, has a nice substack from perspective of an epidemiologist. Two notable recent Omicron posts on that substack: The potentially scary aspects: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/state-of-affa... The potentially good news: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/there-is-good... Obviously it is still early, but imo those 2 posts give a decent lay of the land.
Comment linking /p/there-is-good-news
on “Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado”Submitted Covid State of Affairs: Jan 24 as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
