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Pneumonia is a relatively common problem resulting in antibiotics and the need, in some cases, for hospitalization or intensive care. Can physicians follow guidelines that deliver optimal care and reduce cost? Intermountain Healthcare offers a "yes."

Daily COVID-19 cases reached an all-time high in February and then descended as rapidly as they had surged, with the Omicron variant in full swing. Mask rules were eased as the media featured reports of double-digit percentage decreases in infections and hospitalization, implying that Omicron infections may be less severe than with the previous Delta variant. Meanwhile, vaccination rates remained stalled in some recalcitrant states, and thoughts of a 4th booster program appeared. Who knows what evil still lurks in the heart of the virus?

Operation Warp Speed, everyone loves watching a controlled building demolition, know your adversary, and social media and the “slap heard round the world.”

On January 2, 2022, the Israeli government began the Pfizer vaccine's 4th dose or 2nd booster. The data from Israel's vaccination program is the basis of the decision by the FDA and CDC to recommend a second booster shoot for selected populations. What should you do?

Fat-acceptance advocates say medical terms like "obesity" and "overweight" stigmatize fat people and should be eliminated from our vocabulary. They're putting public health at risk to promote a misguided ideology.

Plastics are ubiquitous in our environment. Much has been made about the increasing amounts all around us, in intended and unintended places. A new study indicates that one of those unintended places is now our bloodstream. This is the first step to understanding their potential toxicity, so it pays us to look carefully at what the scientists did and did not find.

The evidence clearly shows that vaping helps many smokers quit cigarettes. Naturally, federal regulators and state legislators are trying to kill the e-cigarette industry.

Since the CDC, DEA, and Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing have become experts in dispensing prescription drugs, why stop there? Well, in Massachusetts, it didn't stop there. Judges were dictating specific medications to help addicts recover. Judges? Who's quoted in the article? Andrew Kolodny, of course. Why?

Crappy studies on the alleged harm of artificial sweeteners are about as common (and valuable) as a wad of gum stuck under a school chair. Yet, here's another claiming that consumption of artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame and acesulfame-K, are associated with cancer. Shall we dismantle it? I say yes.

Activists frequently assert that 'Big Meat' has tried to deny agriculture's contribution to climate change. Is there any truth to this conspiracy theory?

Millions of giant, ungodly "hideosities" called Joro spiders are *flying* up the east coast as we speak. Some welcome them with open arms. I do not.

Virtue signaling, how deadly are the new variants, Metaverse?, and medicine is an art.

How many of you have read any of the user agreements we have with Google or Facebook? Neither have I. Why are legal contracts so “notoriously difficult for non-lawyers to understand?” A new study in Cognition provides some clues.

A new study employs some blatantly obvious sleight of hand to amplify the so-called teen vaping 'epidemic.' Here's what you need to know.

Two months ago, there was a mad rush to get the two oral antiviral pills approved to treat COVID-19. Pharmacies often ran out of these drugs within hours of delivery. Now, no one wants them. What is going on?

On March 25, 1911 a devastating inferno consumed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York's lower Manhattan. There, 146 workers – mostly young immigrant women – either perished or jumped to their deaths to escape the ravaging flames. Some who reached the lobby were prevented from exiting because of the “raining” bodies falling from above. But the carnage proved far worse because, infamously, other exits had been locked. 

COVID’s Delta Variant is far more infectious than the earlier versions. It also differs in which age group is most susceptible, as this study from South Korea points out.

Beyond needless loss of life, the war in Ukraine has caused a trade war that could slash global food production, taking the greatest toll on the poorest of us. The silver lining: this tragic situation may inspire some long-overdue policy reforms.

Lake Hillier is anything but usual. The Australian lake is 10 times saltier than the ocean, and bright pink. The color comes from the microorganisms that, somehow, are able to thrive under the harshest of conditions, because of the pink. It's no accident. Nature figured out how to use chemistry to defeat the sun.

There is no doubt that inflation is upon us. The oldsters among us remember the bad old days, 13% mortgages. But as with any economic stress, it falls unevenly. Elaine Schwartz from Econlife shows the problem in two graphs, courtesy of the New York Times.

Biologically, we live on the clock, driven by a neurochemical in our brains responsible for circadian rhythms. That tick-tock controls our sleep and wakefulness; the release of hormones; feeding; metabolism; even our immune system. When the rhythm of signaling is disrupted, our health can suffer. Those issues have been in the news as we recently transitioned to Daylight Saving Time. They also may have factored into the U.S. Senate voting unanimously to make DST permanent. Here we separate science fact, from science fiction.

Is it too early to address what went wrong when the COVID vaccines were rolled out? This is not about the “first rough draft of history." Instead, it's a more dispassionate, high-altitude view that allows us to assess this public health moment through two different critical theory lenses: complex systems and scaling.

I became most interested in the two reports on lead we ran in Dispatch last week. I had looked at this topic a few years ago, and at the time I was concerned that ACSH had on its website some older commentaries that seemed to downplay the danger of lower blood levels. Now, let me share some of my thoughts.

The World Health Organization is poised to reject emergency approval for Medicago's COVID vaccine because one of its ingredients is grown in tobacco plants. There's absolutely no justification for this decision.

Ordering diet soda significantly reduces the number of calories customers eat when they visit fast food restaurants, according to a recent study. The paper is an example of scientists reaching the right conclusion for the wrong reasons.