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Ocean? Pool? Ocean? Pool? Perhaps this will help you decide.

From the very beginning, the FDA knew that the COVID-19 vaccine was linked to serious heart trouble in recipients. The FDA medical officer review [1] of Pfizer’s original COVID-19 application notes “clinically important serious adverse reactions [included] anaphylaxis and myocarditis/pericarditis.” There is an urgent need for the FDA, CDC, and manufacturers to thoroughly investigate serious heart-related adverse events after the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines.

The CDC's 2022 revisions of the deeply flawed 2016 Prescribing Advice contains some welcome changes that should reduce the needless suffering of pain patients. Unfortunately, the new document does not go far enough. My comments will be officially submitted to the CDC during the public comment period.

Infection of a vaccinated person is referred to as a “breakthrough” case. Such cases are infrequent, but they raise questions about the long-term efficacy of vaccination. Here we examine some of the available breakthrough data.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to what's been described as heavy fighting at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, near the Ukraine-Belarus border. There have also been reports of rising radiation levels in some places, and concerns about possible damage to the entombed reactor that was damaged in the 1986 accident.

A new study looks at how those, who vape and use hookahs, inhale and exhale. It's an examination of duration, volume, and velocity. In other words, constructing product-specific puff topographies.

The Biden administration announced a "test to treat" plan to provide easy access to Paxlovid – an effective COVID antiviral drug – for anyone who's infected. It's not perfect, but it's sorely needed.

When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars for making a joke about his wife’s bald head, it brought attention to a disease that is often invisible, misunderstood, or treated as a punchline for jokes: alopecia areata. What is this disease? Why does it create such intense feelings that Will Smith lost all control on stage in front of millions?

Antibiotic R&D is hard. Getting to approval is harder. Surviving the commercialization step today is almost impossible. Government-based funding to fix the broken antibiotic market is essential to stop this march of the lemmings. Private investment will follow a government incentive and amplify its effect.

Hear about the German guy who got arrested for getting selling forged vaccine cards to anti-vaxxers? That should be funny enough, right? Nope. ACSH goes the extra kilometer, as usual.

Separating rights from responsibilities, framing, following the science? Stealing our privacy through our games.

Although the 2022 revision of the 2016 CDC Opioid Prescribing Advice is an improvement over the original document, it still refers to Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) as a guide to physicians. Unfortunately, this number does not accurately reflect the relative strength of opioid painkillers. Dr. Jeff Singer and I explain why in a new op-ed in the NY Daily News.

There’s a new study of the benefits of eating your vegetables. It has the usual measurement problems – and concludes that vegetables are good for your health. But it clarifies the issue that your food selection has little effect, as compared to your other life choices.

A new study in JAMA Network Open is a follow-up to a 2015 study done by the same researchers. The questions are: Do you store loaded guns at home? Are they locked or not? Do you store guns that are loaded and unlocked? This is not about the right to bear arms, but the responsibility to store them safely around children.

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.

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?

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.

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?

Jane Campion takes home the 2022 Oscar for Best Director in "The Power of the Dog," an unsettling, psychological Western drama. The tension is due to the relationship of the main character, Phil Burbank, with his brother's new wife and her son, Peter. Phil, to put it bluntly, is a bully. However, young Peter is training to become a medical doctor and [spoiler alert] uses his knowledge of pathogens to destroy an unwitting Phil. How did making a rawhide rope lead to death?

Just like a trip to the dentist, it's time for The Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell. This time we'll discuss the element xenon. Also, Dr. Charles "Chuckie D." Dinerstein gets his comeuppance. And a mini-book review. No extra charge!

Once pretty, vivacious young women in their late teens and early twenties awaiting marriage and children, one by one, they sickened. On X-ray, their bones looked moth-eaten; their teeth fell out, leaving pockets of pus– every dental effort to treat them caused more tooth loss. Eventually, their jawbones broke or splintered in their mouths, or they suffered cancerous sarcomas of their limbs, requiring amputation. Their spines crumbled, their legs shortened, so they painfully limped. For years no one could determine what ailed them. They were the “Radium Girls.”

For the once pretty, vivacious young women in their late teens and early twenties awaiting marriage and children, sickened as they lip, dip, and painted radium onto watch dials the statute of limitations was a major obstacle to their legal claims. In Part II of our story, we look at their legal struggle.

My wife is an excellent cook, and I am a fair sous chef, not quite as devoted as Paul Childs, [1] but persistent and helpful. I always rinse chicken as I take it from its packaging; my wife always tells me that she and the CDC do not recommend that practice. A new study brings physics and bacteriology to the issue, alas, not in my favor – but it offers me some science-informed compromise.

Barry Bonds has an asterisk next to his name because he used muscle-enhancing steroids. President Clinton earned an asterisk because he used another human as a humidor. Will Smith applied for his when he slapped Chris Rock. An asterisk after your name signifies some notable exception, usually bad. I have questions.

In April, the EPA published its draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Toxicological Review of Formaldehyde (inhalation), a 192-page document. The publication of this document raises issues that go far beyond the health effects of formaldehyde, issues concerning science, policy, the role of our scientific agencies, and the potential overreach of government regulatory authority.