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Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina publishes regular, extremely informative updates of the state of respiratory infectious diseases in the U.S.  This was the punchline of her most recent one, published on December 5:

Respiratory illnesses continue to increase due to colder temperatures, changes in human behavior (i.e., holidays), and viruses mutating, like Covid-19.

As shown in this figure, overall respiratory illness levels are high or very high in almost half the country, and we are still fairly early in the season:

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Although most people who get COVID recover within a few days or, at most, weeks, we cannot ignore that this infection has already killed some 1.1 million Americans, and the death toll is currently about 4.000 per week. In addition, even those with only mild infections can experience the syndrome of "long COVID," which is marked by persistent, sometimes debilitating symptoms that last for months or even years following the acute infection.

According to a recent article in Nature Reviews Microbiology by Scripps Research’s Dr. Eric Topol and coworkers:

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The Wall Street Journal published a news article on January 5, “Why It Feels Like Everyone You Know Is Getting COVID-19,” which contained several worrisome observations. It cited “a seven-day average of more than 26,000 people hospitalized with COVID in late December, about double the number two months earlier,” noting that although the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths are far lower than during the previous two winters, “it remains a disruptive and rapidly spreading illness.”

Those were understatements. Within hours after the article appeared, the CDC released updated December numbers that were significantly worse. During the week from Dec 24-Dec 30, COVID hospitalizations were up 20.4% week-...

Many people think of cancer as a single disease, and for many years the only treatment was to cut out tumor tissue that could be seen.  However, the history of cancer is that we have gradually subdivided malignancies into multiple categories.  First was the site of origin (lung, colon, breast, and so on); the second was based on what it looked like under the microscope (an adenocarcinoma vs a squamous cancer, for example); and a third was the extent of the tumor – whether it stayed in the organ of origin or spread to lymph nodes, lung, bone, and other organs. 

Therapy regimens gradually evolved to treat each of these categories differently, with standard treatments tailored to the specific situation, and this type of increasingly customized therapy has been extremely important...

The “Social Justice Warrior Handbook,” which satirizes people who promote liberal, multicultural, anti-capitalist, anti-globalization, and politically correct views, could have had Indian activist and mountebank Vandana Shiva on the cover. She opposes the tools and practices of modern agriculture and science — and for that matter, modernity in general — and advocates regressive policies that cause widespread malnourishment, famine, and death to the very people she claims to champion. And she’s no friend of the environment, either.

It is noteworthy, then, that earlier this month, two U.S. universities – Florida International University and Boston College -- invited her to lecture. That...

By now, virtually everyone knows many people who have had COVID. Although most who get it recover within a few days or weeks, it has killed 1.2 million Americans (with the weekly death toll still in the hundreds), and even those with only mild infections can experience long COVID, marked by persistent, sometimes debilitating symptoms that last for months or even years following the acute infection.

According to Scripps Research Translational Institute’s Dr. Eric Topol and coworkers in a January 2023 article in Nature Reviews Microbiology: “At least 65 million individuals worldwide have long COVID, based on a conservative...

I. Introduction

Some old scares refuse to die. This year finds us with revivals of more than a few stories that we had hoped would stay in the junk scares graveyard, where they belong. But from phthalates to genetically modified fish, consumers continue to be needlessly frightened about safe products. Still, we’ve also been kept on our toes with plenty of new scares — we’ve been told that the apple juice we give to our kids every day has dangerous amounts of arsenic, and that vaccinating teenagers against HPV to prevent cervical cancer can instead cause “mental retardation.”

At the American Council on Science and Health, our goal is to increase people’s awareness of actual threats to their health — smoking, for example...

January 7, 2008: A Long Way, Baby, Albeit While Coughing

- Quote to Note: "A man may take out a woman who smokes for a good time, but he won't marry her, and if he does, he won't stay married." --A 1914 Washington Post editorial.

- Did you know that it used to be illegal for women to smoke? Neither did several ACSH staffers. In the early part of the twentieth century, women could get expelled from college for smoking, and policemen would warn a woman if they saw her taking a puff on the side of the road. Smoking cigarettes used to be taboo for women.

So what changed? The advertising and marketing of cigarettes did.

Edward Bernays, in particular, created a campaign to start women smoking -- and it worked wonders. One example...

MORNING DISPATCH 9/5/08: McCain vs. Pharma, Science vs. Cancer Claim, plus Smoking, Shots, and Obesity

McCain's anti-pharma stance is misguided
ACSH staffers were extremely disappointed by John McCain's promise to "take on the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries" if he becomes president. "It's offensive and preposterous to equate an industry that kills over 400,000 Americans annually with an industry that saves countless lives," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.

McCain has a contentious history with...

MORNING DISPATCH 9/12/08: McDonald's, FDA, Botox, Helmets, Drinking Water, and Religious Diets

McDonald's counters attacks on its role in obesity epidemic
Peter Bush, the CEO of McDonald's Australia, spoke out against the idea that fast food is the main cause of rising levels of childhood obesity. "He points out that a majority of children's meals do not come from McDonald's and that lack of exercise also contributes," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava points out that even though the causes of obesity are complex, "the media, especially in the U.S., tend to blame obesity on food intake only -- especially fast food."

"While the...