Even in the time of COVID-19, antibiotic resistance remains a problem. Is it a particle or a wave? - turns out it may be neither. Zombies get all the press, but are vampires the real problem? Theory or practice? Finally, more on the science of gift-giving.
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COVID-19 infections are relentless. In every state, November rates increased over October, more than doubling on average. And these rates are widely dispersed across the nation. Early COVID-19 cases and deaths were associated with local conditions, including residential crowding and household income. More personal factors have since come into play as the pandemic spread and hotspots shifted to the heartland.
We, humans, have difficulty understanding the very small and the very large, but scale plays an increasingly important role in our lives - think Amazon or Twitter. What if we taught about scale in school? Are we becoming more or less violent? An update on COVID-19's origin story - a cautionary tale? What does the Federal Trade Commission have to do with the problems at the Capital?
This monthly report presents systematic descriptions for the U.S.'s six geographic regions using state-level [1] COVID-19 cases based on positive tests, subsequent deaths, and case-fatality ratios (CFRs).
Back in August, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization for convalescent plasma for treating those with COVID-19. With more data in hand, the agency has now limited its use to a subset of hospitalized patients.
We’ve all heard the “heartbreaking” stories – the passing of a loved one is met with the passing of their spouse soon thereafter. Are these sudden, paired deaths only coincidences – or is there a medical basis such that one can literally die from a broken heart?
The Trump Administration has sought to change how we review scientific studies used in regulatory decisions. Those changes have caused quite a bit of controversy, and now the Courts have sent it back to the EPA to "redo."
CDC policymaking is coming up short, according to Henry Miller, M.D., and John J. Cohrssen. The agency continues to relegate policymaking to value judgments instead of hard data.
COVID-19 frequently dominates the nightly news, and it’s always there in today’s daily life. Is the pandemic ebbing, or is it still menacing the careless? Charts, tables, and statistics dominate the discussion. Some emphasize counts, some quote short-term percentage changes like a 20% drop. Pictures and statistics tell stories, but with COVID-19, it depends on how you look at them.
Let’s not forget that the goal in tamping down the COVID-19 pandemic is to vaccinate the world. But it’s an ambitious project impaired by the concepts of “vaccine nationalism,” fostered by “vaccine diplomacy.” We should consider more than how those words make us feel.
It took only a few days for the American Federation of Teachers, their second-largest union, to say “not so fast” to the CDC’s recommendation for opening schools by reducing pupils' distance from six to three feet. What is the science behind their concerns?
The DEA lifted its 2007 ban on methadone clinics sending out mobile units to reach people in communities underserved by the clinics. But patients are required to take the methadone in the presence of clinic staff. A better solution is to let doctors prescribe take-home methadone, like they do in Canada, UK, Australia--and they were permitted to do as an emergency measure during the pandemic.
New COVID-19 cases (infections) and deaths began a steep decline in January, followed by deaths and case-fatality rates a few weeks later. What are the sources of the variability we identified in our national regions?
The FDA’s controversial approval of Aduhelm, the drug intended to treat Alzheimer’s Disease, has resulted in resignations from their advisory committee and now investigations, both internal and Congressional. The FDA and editors of JAMA Internal Medicine are speaking out before the investigational circus comes to town.
The complications of being hospitalized with COVID-19 may increase your chances of dying, and in many cases leave you more debilitated than before becoming ill. There is more to COVID-19's recovery than those with "long COVID."
CMS provides a twice-annual snapshot of the care and concerns of Medicare beneficiaries. They just released the latest survey that ended in April. We have time to take in a few curated highlights.
Everything about COVID-19 is subject to scrutiny by informed and ill-informed media, by experts, by eminence. Booster shots are the latest in the communication apocalypse. Do we need them? Pick your data; there is a great deal to choose from.
Storytelling in science, finding the narrative. The simultaneous rise of literacy and misogyny, heavy metal harp, the mushroom mind, and a Twitter Ivermectin thread and media bias
The constant barrage of news, cloaked in attention-getting words and images, is playing havoc with instinctual behavior that is millions of years old. There is, for me, a direct connection between fight or flee, chronic stress, and how we have chosen to use the medium of digital communication. Digital media is an out-of-control fear machine.
With the school year underway, teacher vaccine mandates, and mask mandates in partial or full effect, have we made our children safer? That we cannot say, at least as yet, but a new study can tell us something about how COVID-19 can and does spread.
A confession, climate change, how to read a book, and it is truly Autumn in New York
Most COVID-19 concerns have focused on daily infections and their accumulated impacts. Relatively little attention has been given to the lingering symptoms known as “long-haul COVID,” even though it comprises some 30% of cases. The available data are spotty but amenable to the same kinds of population analysis that has been applied to daily cases.
I was driving to my favorite bagel shop when I noticed a bright green plant nestled in the bare branches of a tall tree. It piqued my curiosity, so my husband asked one of his bagel buddies, knowledgeable about a myriad of topics, what the plant is. “Why, mistletoe, of course,” was his response. “Didn’t you know that mistletoe is a parasitic plant that is always attached to its host tree?”
A new take on sin taxes, Wordle and the Internet, who is an expert, and the return of human sacrifices?
There is a tussle between those that believe that our COVID vaccines are net beneficial and those that argue that there are too many adverse side effects. The combatants cite data from varying sources, always pointing out that their opponents’ data are, as Mark Twain states, “lies, damn lies, and statistics.” A new paper from JAMA Network Open puts some context to the numbers.
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