Even though we've been isolated from each other and the world at large, that doesn't mean we here at ACSH haven't been making our voices heard across the media landscape. In fact, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging on, our views on medical and scientific matters have been in even greater demand. And it's our view that there's no better way to spend our working hours at home than to provide clarity and calming guidance during this coronavirus health crisis.
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How well we do in assessing the economic outcomes of the COVID-19 lockdown will determine how well we do in the next match. And there will be a next match.
The recently-passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act includes a surprise: a loophole for surprise billing in testing for COVID-19.
PM2.5 designates a near-ubiquitous air-polluting particle that frequently appears in the scientific literature as well as popular press news items. But few of us really know what they are talking about, mainly because it is just one characteristic of a complex category.
Twitter captures geolocation data in about 3% of tweets. Two researchers from Johns Hopkins released a report on the changes in our social mobility. How much we are traveling, based on that dataset?
Among the many lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is how cumbersome one‐size‐fits‐all regulations, administered by an impersonal bureaucracy, hamper a rapid and flexible response to an evolving public health emergency. The U.S. Navy Medical Corps provides us with a recent example.
There is a lot of malicious misinformation on the internet about glyphosate. Much of it comes from academia.
Environmentalists often oppose the very solutions that they once proposed.
From vaping to alternative medicine, health authorities in the United Kingdom are much more willing to tell people the cold, hard truth, as compared to their American counterparts.
The Democrats have an additional health issue besides Medicare for All: The cardiovascular status of the Vermont Senator and that of the former mayor of New York. It's time to look to a physician for explanations, rather than Drs. Google and Facebook.
Dr. Derek Lowe, arguably the finest and most influential chemistry blogger in the universe, has put together an excellent summary of the complex and confusing clinical data of hydroxychloroquine, which he published recently in his blog in Science and Translational Medicine. We thank Derek and AAAS for allowing us to reprint this important article.
Why are basic questions about the biology of SARS-CoV-2 so hard to answer?
At one point, nuclear power provided 25% of Germany's electricity. But the fallout from Chernobyl, both political and real, led to a moratorium on construction and an initial planned phaseout of all nuclear reactors by 2022. That deadline subsequently was extended to 2032, but after the events at Fukushima in Japan, the phaseout policy deadline reverted back to two years from now. Today, Germany gets 11% of its electricity from nuclear sources. A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research measures the fallout.
All told, there are probably a couple of hundred different causes of the common cold. Amazon's attempt to create a common cold vaccine is, therefore, a foolish waste of money. Instead, the asset-rich company should spend it on antiviral research.
Are those who claim that life will never go back to normal after the coronavirus, correct? Are we condemned to live in a Brave New World, governed by social distancing and disinfection protocols, in which perfect hygiene is the greatest good?
As the drumbeats for health systems to treat the socioeconomic determinants of health grows louder -- and administrators eye an enlarging “mission” and the funds that come with it -- ask yourself this: What exactly are those determinants? A new study provides some tentative answers.
Researchers in the journal Physics of Fluids just published a visualization of the dispersion of droplets from simulated coughing. It's worth a look.
Much remains biologically uncertain about COVID-19, especially when it comes to its infectiousness. For example, how many particles must be taken to allow the virus to begin to replicate within oneself? On the other hand, the virus particle itself is subject to well-established laws of physics. So, when it comes to masks and social distancing, how can physics inform our understanding? Let's take a look.
While it remains popular to attribute the opioid‐related overdose crisis to doctors prescribing pain relievers to patients, the evidence shows there is no correlation between prescription volume and non‐medical opioid use or opioid use disorder.
The coronavirus has mutated to become more infectious. Does that mean it will become more or less lethal? And what implication does it have for a vaccine and herd immunity?
Drugs that don't work when taken orally are the bane of drug discovery chemists. Now it's the bane of the world. But there are techniques that can convert orally inactive drugs, like remdesivir, into pills. Here's how they work.
Do genetics play a role in COVID-19's outcomes, does the herd know better than the experts, Chinese censorship, regulations can hamper even if well intended, and finally why many of us are gardening and what might a careful listener hear from plants?
Remdesivir arrived with great hope and even greater expectations. Would this drug finally awake us from the 2-plus-month long nightmare that has the U.S. tossing and turning in its sleep? As things stand now that answer is no. Here's why.
Should we open up the economy immediately or remain on lockdown indefinitely until a vaccine is made? Believe it or not, there are other options. It's too bad that society isn't smart enough to understand that.
When it comes to unwinding the lockdown, we are faced with the urge to be social once again. And since we are also faced with huge uncertainty, what does "an abundance of caution" actually mean?
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