This will come as a shock to you; it did for me. As a physician, not everyone followed my advice. In fact, some people sought second opinions choosing other paths and other physicians! Why would that be?!
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Despite relatively high vaccine uptake, New York City is about to enact mandatory shots for all residents before they can visit indoor restaurants, gyms and entertainment centers. This is unhelpful at best and counterproductive at worst.
Studies investigating serious side effects associated with the COVID-19 vaccines are beginning to give us a better sense of how safe the shots are. Despite what you may see on Twitter, the evidence continues to show that vaccination poses minimal risk to the vast majority of people.
Roughly 70% of Americans have gotten or plan to get vaccinated – a percentage that has not changed since June. The public remains divided between those that fear the virus and its consequences and those who fear the vaccination.
The pushback over mask mandates has been fierce. It’s been portrayed in the media as another skirmish in the political and cultural wars. And while there’s an element of truth to that, framing all of the COVID controversies as political can lead us very much astray.
It's no secret that the weed killer glyphosate shows up in our food. But how much of a health risk is this to consumers? A new review paper examining the evidence offers a reassuring conclusion.
Discussing our mortality is tricky business. Few of us jump into the discussion, even when it’s increasingly important near the end life. So it’s easily understandable why the carbon footprint from the disposal of one’s remains doesn’t always land on most people’s list of worries.
Sometimes an article cries out for attention. This one did because it is a great example of association, not causation. Which did come first, the medication or the loneliness?
The FDA needs to step up and fix the definition of strength. "Business as usual” under the existing language of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 means continued disincentives to promote a more aggressive uptake of biosimilars.
Could governments mandate that we quit reproducing sexually for the sake of public health? It sounds outlandish, but there are prominent thinkers making that case. Their argument is superficially plausible but ultimately absurd, both for scientific and ethical reasons.
Medical imaging requires patients to be injected with or drink a radionuclide that can be “imaged” to show various organs and dysfunction. For the time that the radionuclide remains in your system (it is urinated out within a day or so), you are radioactive. According to the Health Physics Society, “our bodies are naturally radioactive, because we eat, drink, and breathe radioactive substances that are naturally present in the environment.”
Public health, in much of this country, is in crisis. Hospitals are overwhelmed and understaffed, vaccination is widely resisted, state governments present mixed messages -- and COVID-19 is out of control and headed for a 4th wave. The more-contagious Delta variant has been spreading rapidly and may challenge the efficacy of our vaccines. We address this situation with population-based statistics in two modes: progression over time and geographic variation.
Is there a political perspective on nature vs. nurture? What to do about losing “the grid” during storms. A whale of a tale! PETA and the fashionistas. And what I am listening to.
As was the case with other "instant therapies" for COVID, convalescent plasma showed no utility whatsoever in a well-designed randomized controlled trial, something that should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever waded in the treacherous waters of drug discovery research. Another one bites the dust.
Environmental Working Group claims that meat "is exacerbating the climate crisis." EWG isn't wrong to point out the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, though the activist group has oversimplified the problem—and its promising solutions.
In a bid to bolster their flagging anti-biotech agenda, several high-profile activist groups have bizarrely joined the chorus of voices suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab. The science community needs to make clear that wherever the virus came from, its beginnings do not undermine the safety or efficacy of important biotechnology innovations in food and medicine.
The same mRNA technology that gave us effective COVID-19 vaccines could yield a new generation of highly protective seasonal flu shots. When will we see these upgraded influenza vaccines? Perhaps sooner than you think.
Hospital data show that the largest shares of COVID infections and deaths have been to the unvaccinated, about whom we have little personal information. The media has interviewed a few individuals, but large-scale demographic data are needed for a better understanding. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may provide some insight.
We're almost two years into the pandemic and there have been more than enough ups and downs to last a lifetime. But now we have a potentially big "up," because the results just came in on Pfizer's COVID drug Paxlovid—and they are nothing short of amazing. Will we finally be free of the terror of this pandemic? Maybe.
What went wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic? A team of public health researchers recently outlined some of the crucial policy mistakes we made and explained how we might avoid them in the future.
The anti-GMO movement is gradually campaigning itself into irrelevance. Unfortunately, this positive trend has been slowed by public universities that pay activists exorbitant speaking fees to promote their questionable ideas. This is but one example of taxpayers subsidizing ideological advocacy with potentially serious consequences.
The Veteran Administration's "Opioid Safety Initiative" – as fine an example of doublespeak as you'll see – succeeded in reducing opioid prescriptions by 64% in less than a decade. That's just fine if you're prepared to accept the accompanying 75% increase in rural veteran suicides. Drs. Jeffrey Singer and Josh Bloom are not. Here's their opinion piece in The Virginian-Pilot.
The process of respiration – converting oxygen to carbon dioxide and energy – is what life is all about. This metabolic process, which humans and animals must do to live, changes the environment when we inhale air and release our breath back into the world. How does COVID-19 fit into this?
Some vaccines are one-and-done, like measles. Others are annual events, like the seasonal flu. There's new data as to where on that spectrum the COVID-19 vaccine lies.
We hope you enjoy this – probably your last – Thanksgiving. Because, as you will see, you'll be scarfing down carcinogens with every bite. Don't believe me? Ask the Environmental Working Group. They'll be only too happy to tell you how these trace chemicals will kill you. For the rest of the ACSH staff, so long. It's been nice knowing all of you.
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