Wellness is big business. Everybody wants it and there are many providers ready to offer a route to the panacea. In addition, disinformation and lax regulations have allowed health and wellness products to flourish and prosper without the rigor and evidence requirements of prescription medicines. While some vendors are prosecuted for their misleading claims, very […]
Category: COVID 19
The more we describe the human body, the less we really understand it. The latest enigma is the immune system. It is a complex, and ever-changing ecosystem composed of many cell types that constantly interact with their environment to protect our bodies and maintain our internal equilibrium. Maybe soon we will be able to buy […]
COVID lockdowns are fortunately behind us, and vacations are making a huge comeback. But how safe is it to holiday, especially on a ship? Cruise carriers bear a duty to keep their passengers safe. Despite the decrease in the number and severity of COVID cases, there are of course still risks in everyday life. Masks are no […]
Now that COVID occurs in people who are vaccinated and/or treated, it is time call a truce. The fact that COVID continues to be part of our daily lives requires an ecological view of our relationship to our environment, which includes all living organisms and those that live within us. We must make friends of […]
Covid has reminded us that living is a delicate balance of harmony and disharmony with our environmental partners – most recently, viruses. It has only been a couple of decades since our last major epidemic, HIV, was untreated and unpreventable. But things have changed and while Covid is on the way to becoming the equivalent […]
The second decade of this century will be remembered as the decade of COVID craziness if we aren’t careful. There is madness all around and very little of it is caused by the virus itself. From vaccine frenzy to vaccine denial, it is difficult to tease out what should be done next. Start distributing more […]
There is a level of complexity in determining who is at risk from a serious COVID infection. Prior chronic diseases have a big part to play, and it’s not just based on which organs are affected by the chronic disease. Is it time to say goodbye to COVID boosters? For example, not all patients with […]
In the acute phase, men with COVID experience more severe symptoms and higher mortality than women. In that way COVID is no different from many of the viruses that have attacked humans over the last century. The health of women is not just women’s health Men are more attractive to viral infections than women. For example, […]
Viruses can’t die because they aren’t alive in the first place. They are just a bunch of genetic instructions in search of a living organism to hijack. Become part of the COVID death squad So how is it that the COVID-19 coronavirus doesn’t just disappear as we all get vaccinated? Sure, vaccination decreases the viral load […]
Time to spin some wishes into reality. Here is my top ten, in no particular order. Share yours in the comments box. Science never turns into science fiction, nor medical evidence twisted into medical factoid. COVID vaccination rates globally reach at least 90%. COVID continues to morph into another influenza – like illness. Public health units […]
Last month I presented two virtual sessions at the Harvard Leadership program for women in the health professions. This is a sold-out event, mainly because of the hard work of Dr. Julie Silver and her team. I have been involved for several years and every year I have found the engagement of the audience increasing. Given the […]
For many months now, COVID testing has become a part of everyday life. Beyond identifying if you have COVID, the tests have very little additional use. They don’t provide information we have come to expect from the battery of routine medical tests we are subjected to through our lifetime. We need global standards for testing, […]
The way COVID-19 vaccines protect us is still not fully understood. Nor is the level of protection achieved by the various vaccines. Studies are now emerging highlighting the confusion in the community about what constitutes vaccine efficacy. There is a common misconception that vaccine efficacy is measured by the vaccine’s ability to prevent us from […]
Now that the saner populations of the world are reaching a critical mass of vaccination against COVID, our attention must turn to whether booster vaccinations are necessary. And as with everything emerging about COVID, it is a rapidly changing picture. Choose a different vaccine to boost and only one dose Eleven years ago, US Infectious Disease […]
Vaccines are the best news to emerge from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid and successful deployment of the new vaccines offers a way to limit the devastating effects of the pandemic – for men at least. Unfortunately, the recent reports of thromboembolic events (clotting) may raise new concerns amongst the unvaccinated. These reports initiated with vaccines […]
Vaccine hesitancy is a real problem in the control of mortality from COVID. It is true that we know very little about the safety of these new generation mRNA vaccines. However, we do know that mRNA vaccines are safer than previous generations of nucleotide vaccines that were based on DNA and therefore could be integrated into our […]
As a public health physician, and as a family physician, I am ashamed. In response to COVID, my colleagues in public health officialdom are losing credibility as they search for politically driven quick fixes and remain silent when individual freedoms are restricted without clear evidence of an enduring relationship to positive outcomes. COVID is here […]
Competing as an Olympian is a dangerous pursuit. In the sixteen days of competition one in ten athletes will sustain an injury during the games. Of these injuries, one in three will prevent the athlete from competing or continuing to compete. Cycling, gymnastics, and weightlifting earn Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for the most injuries at the Olympics. Taekwondo, […]
I have a passport that identifies my citizenship and permits me to enter countries around the world. It has been sitting quietly in my drawer gathering cobwebs as I watch countries open and shut their borders according to the latest knee jerk quasi-public health prompt. “Covid” and “passport” should not be used together Passports and […]
With the data about COVID isolation and its negative effects polluting our senses, it is reassuring that researchers are turning their attention to interventions to assist people sheltering at home. Caged humans should start planning escapades Bringing the outside world into our homes is one strategy. Stress is reduced in indoor environments enriched with plants […]
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