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Tara C. Smith

Contributing Columnist

Latest Articles

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Can Our Brains Be Taken Over?

By Tara C. Smith
February 23, 2023
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Several real-life pathogens can change a host’s behavior against their will. Here’s what we know about these zombie-like infections.

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What We Know About Monkeypox

By Tara C. Smith
September 29, 2022
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Even though we’ve learned a lot about this relative of smallpox, some mysteries remain due to a lack of political will.

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What Happens When We Give Animals Our Diseases?

By Tara C. Smith
April 27, 2022
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While it’s understandable to focus on the diseases affecting humans, it’s important to study how our illnesses may affect animals.

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Will We Ever Get Rid of COVID-19?

By Tara C. Smith
November 30, 2021
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No matter how much we’d like to eradicate SARS-CoV-2, it may be better to settle for other forms of control.

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How ‘Long COVID’ Keeps Us Sick

By Tara C. Smith
July 1, 2021
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Other diseases with long-term symptoms can help us understand how COVID can affect us long after the virus itself is gone.

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How to Understand COVID-19 Variants and Their Effects on Vaccines

By Tara C. Smith
February 25, 2021
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Researchers are tracking the different strains of SARS-CoV-2 and studying how they spread through our population and our bodies.

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What Other Coronaviruses Tell Us About SARS-CoV-2

By Tara C. Smith
April 29, 2020
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As COVID-19 cases continue to increase, our extensive knowledge of other coronaviruses informs our understanding.

Illustration of a connection between a bat and a human, with a backdrop of coronaviruses.
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The Animal Origins of Coronavirus and Flu

By Tara C. Smith
February 25, 2020
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Zoonotic diseases like influenza and many coronaviruses start out in animals, but their biological machinery often enables them to jump to humans.

Illustration of pathogens, vaccines, and other necessary factors for eradicating a disease.
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How to Permanently End Diseases

By Tara C. Smith
December 3, 2019
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Smallpox was eradicated relatively quickly, but other diseases have proved harder to eliminate. The reasons are a mix of biology and psychology.


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About the author

Tara C. Smith is a professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health and an internationally recognized expert on infectious diseases, particularly those passing from animals to humans. She was the first to identify livestock-associated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the U.S. As a science communicator, she is well known as the author of Ebola’s Message (MIT Press) and of the science blog Aetiology.
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