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Flu is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality every year. Flu vaccines are safe and effective, but far too many Americans decide to forgo them. The result is preventable illnesses and deaths. We must do better at encouraging flu vaccination.

The paternalistic model of the relationship between physician and patient is so done. The new relationship is supposed to be an exchange between almost peers – between you, formerly patients, now consumers, and us, formerly physicians, now providers. But is that really the case?

“Oregonians voted in November 2020 to stop incarcerating people for using drugs unapproved by the federal government and instead direct resources to harm reduction programs. The pandemic got in the way. Now, while this project is still in its infancy, a group of Oregonians wants to replace something that hasn’t had a chance to work with something that we KNOW hasn’t and won’t work.”

Now that prospective parents have the option to genetically design their kids (at least to a point), what does this mean to society in terms of other responsibilities involved in child-making?

The Washington Post and an investigative journalism outlet called The Examination have partnered to investigate nutrition influencers on social media. Their investigation is ongoing, so we can expect more from them. While I think this work is important, I believe some red flags in this investigation are worthy of discussion.

Could the news on the environment get any worse? Every day, we are inundated by stories about extreme weather events, including floods, hurricanes, extreme heat, a global water crisis due to severe droughts, and a food crisis resulting from declining land suitable for agriculture. But there is some good news to report. Innovation is driving solutions to many of these problems. Perhaps the situation is not as dire as the news reports.

The honest answer to our shortage of primary care physicians
Musical scoring of Indiana Jones
Are our perceptions top-down or bottom-up?
Rules for Readers

As if fentanyl isn't bad enough, a series of opioid receptor agonists called nitazines is making its way into the street drug supply. But is this because the chemicals used to make fentanyl are now more difficult to obtain? It's certainly possible, if not likely. Organic chemists are nothing if not versatile.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a physician was charged with manslaughter for administering morphine and a sedative to patients who couldn't leave the hospital during the disaster. Was she alleviating their pain and anxiety or trying to kill them? Meanwhile, many news outlets are paid to slant their science coverage. How did that happen, and what do we do about it?

I was always an early riser, but having to be at the hospital by 5 or so AM refined that predisposition. A new study of sleep shows that when we go to bed, how long it takes to fall asleep, and countless other measures of our biological need to sleep are part genetic and part cultural.

Last week, the FDA and CDC presented their recommendations for the newest round of COVID-19 vaccines. As with everything COVID, there are proponents and detractors, or, putting it another way, both knowledgeable experts and disinformation-spreading attention-seekers. The reality is that a group of experts made a judgment based on actual data.  We discuss the evidence here so you can make your own informed decision.

Much has been written about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Many who are adamant about diversity, especially in regulatory science, are less enthused over equity. I’ve had a few thoughts about both.

As an inveterate number cruncher, I couldn’t resist playing with a set of state-level data on prison populations that came my way. It has often been noted that the U.S. has among the highest rates of incarceration in the world. However, most of us feel that we enjoy a basically fair, just, and healthy society even though we are far from leading the world regarding life expectancies.

You may want to procure an air sickness bag before you read this. What's worse: A cigarette company portraying smoking as sexy (and it's not the least bit subtle) or a 1970 ad proudly proclaiming, "You've come a long way, baby" (as if the women's rights movement somehow empowered women by giving them their own brand of cigarettes)?

The process of selecting viruses for the yearly flu vaccines is complex and inexact. For the 2023-2024 flu season, there is reason to be optimistic that the vaccines will provide good protection.

The Cochrane Library recently completed a review of “the comparative benefits, harms and tolerability of different smoking cessation pharmacotherapies and e-cigarettes, when used to help people stop smoking tobacco.” Spoiler alert: as we have shown, e-cigarettes are a significant aid in reducing dependency on smoking tobacco.

Are impending drug DUI laws scientifically justified, accurate, or fair? If you're pulled over for a traffic violation in certain locations and asked to take a roadside saliva test, you may learn they're anything but. Drs. Josh Bloom and Henry Miller discuss this in an opinion piece published in the law journal Law360.

Peer-reviewed research is the gold standard for science. We rely on that system to weed out the discoveries from the detritus. However, growing concerns over how the peer-review system operates are forcing the academic community to take a long, hard look at the process and ask, “How can we improve this?”

A recent study of young, deceased athletes exposed to repeated head trauma revealed that 41% suffered severe Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), leading to their death or severe neuropsychological damage. If serious sports injuries are so prevalent, why aren’t we banning the ball?

According to the CDC, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., taking roughly 700,000 lives in 2021. For cardiologists who treat these patients, the supply and demand are endless. Those market conditions attract private equity because caring for those patients means big money.

Confessions of a Climate Scientist
Hunting
Real or lab-grown, we’re talking diamonds now
Can we really know the intent of others?

An FDA panel voted unanimously to withdraw the decongestant phenylephrine (PE) because it shows no benefit, something Sudafed PE users probably learned years ago. But the real story is why phenylephrine was on pharmacy shelves at all. It's all about the DEA and stupid drug policies, a story we've heard many times before.

Two bills – one in Idaho, the other in the U.S. Senate – defy science, logic, and civic responsibility. The first would criminalize the administration of life-saving mRNA vaccines, while the second would ban mask mandates.

Public health agencies have no problem recommending people replace tobacco smoke with nicotine patches or chewing gum. Yet they have a seemingly visceral dislike for replacing tobacco smoking with nicotine e‑cigarettes, even though research shows nicotine e‑cigarettes are more effective than patches or gum. Perhaps it’s because the act of vaping too closely resembles the act of smoking. Whatever the reason, it’s not evidence-based.

Is there anything more annoying than walking into a hotel room and seeing the signs to “Save the Environment” by not having the hotel wash your dirty towels? Why should you feel guilty about wanting clean towels after paying high prices for the privilege of staying at their establishment? This was the very situation that led to an essay in 1986 in which the term greenwashing was used for the first time.