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Dr. Paul Offit, Chief of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses COVID-19 vaccines with Eric Topol, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the website, Medscape. From safety to side effects, to how protective they might be.

Early on in the pandemic, the call was to flatten the curve, in order to reduce the number of cases and not overwhelm our healthcare systems. Over time, some say that has morphed into an attempt to eliminate or suppress the viral spread. A new study looks at the tradeoff.

President Trump was administered an investigative drug as part of his treatment for COVID-19. It's Regeneron's Regn-COV2, a combination of monoclonal antibodies. Here's what we know about it.

I know nothing about the President's condition or treatment besides what we all read or hear in the media. But I do have 30 years of experience prescribing care for patients, and maybe some of that experience will be usefully shared.

Of course, COVID-19 has been disruptive to our lives, both at home and at work. The effect across industry varies. For instance, the fortunes of Amazon and Jeff Bezos soar, while the deaths of mom and pop retail stores have accelerated.

In these uncertain times, the annual celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a welcomed tradition. While it's true that many of our in-person gatherings have converted to virtual ones, this has not dampened the power of pink in our lives.

'Tis the Season. And while shopping has changed, what to get someone remains a problem for all of us. A new paper by the scientists of commerce, marketers, reminds us of what gives the greatest happiness.

We've finally had some amazing (and badly needed) news about COVID. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are about 95 percent protective against COVID. But perhaps more importantly, according to interim analyses, Moderna's vaccine is 100% protective against severe COVID. This number is not only more impressive but may also be more clinically relevant.

The Pew Research Center released a survey of 12,648 Americans on their current views on COVID-19. The headline was the increasing interest in vaccinations, up now to 60% of those surveyed, since Pfizer and Moderna's announcements. But the headline left a lot of great information "below the fold," if mentioned at all. This special edition of Every Picture Tells A Story shares a few of the salient findings.

On Nov. 25, 2020, the Supreme Court decided Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Andrew Cuomo [1] in a 5-4 ruling. That decision struck down Gov. Cuomo's executive order limiting to ten the number of individuals who could gather in places of worship in hard-hit “red zones.”  As COVID's US toll continues to increase and vaccination efforts fumble, we can expect frustrated governors and public health officials to seek to enforce a broader panoply of lockdown orders. The Diocese case teaches a few lessons to assure new orders don’t trespass on the new-found Religious devotion of the Supreme Court.

Ah, for the old times, when our biggest fear was seasonal flu. Roughly 80% of healthcare workers get vaccinated, more the docs and nurses, less the aides. Where it is required, the vaccination rate rises to 90%. [1] Those not getting vaccinated are doing harm, as a new study shows.

Good, better, and best. We seem to be better, but a long way from best.

I just scored shot #2. It wasn't as pleasant as shot #1. And there were few surprises.

What is trust? Did whales learn to avoid whalers? The dangerous self-fulfillment of ludic loops

Modeling the COVID-19 pandemic has become a quasi cottage industry, both in creating the models (as well as their subsequent failed predictions and criticisms). A new model takes on the hardest of variables to accurately portray: behavior. Not of the virus, but of its human hosts.

Everything today comes with ratings, from 5-star hospitals to hotels, films, and screwdrivers. Like grade inflation, the problem is that nearly everyone is “best.” For marketing, it may be that the truth lies not in our stars … but in our accompanying words.

Much of the concern regarding CDC guidelines for COVID-19 involves the perception that, at times, they are contradictory. And these perceived flip-flops can be used as political fodder. While some mix-messaging is due to our changing understanding of the deadly virus, it may often stem from the struggle between messages directed at overall public health, versus those for individuals.

The push to reopen schools continues, as does the back and forth between the CDC’s school-opening guidelines and the teachers' unions saying “not so fast.” Could we all agree that remote learning has not adequately replaced in-class learning? Here is some data to consider.

Deep in our gut, our microbiologic fellow travelers await the “manna” from heaven that we provide them, prechewed and ready for assimilation. In return, they provide nutrients and exert both pro- and anti-inflammatory influences on our well-being. In many ways, aided by the microbiome, we are what we eat – if only there were a Rosetta Sone to help us know how a particular food altered the offerings of our microbial dependents.

As more and more of the US population is vaccinated, we are not clutching our vaccine supplies so tightly. We are beginning to send them to others in need. There is a great deal of talk about the costs, and you know, somewhere, some “bean counter” is doing a cost-benefit analysis. 

Viral evolution, school lunch, soil science, and life on Mars.

You would think that with 71% of our planet covered in water, there would be enough to go around. While that is probably true, how that water is distributed is causing concern.

How many of us have had COVID-19 or received vaccinations? The numbers of those inoculated are a bit easier to come by, but to count all those infected we’d have to test everybody. (That hasn’t happened – and won’t be happening.) Knowing the number of asymptomatic transmitters is helpful in both understanding who’s most impacted by COVID-19 and achieving the nirvana of herd immunity. A new study looks at a different population among us: blood donors.

It takes up a third of our life; why do we sleep? Jimming the lock of the lock and key model of biology. How to escape a volcano, like the one on La Palma. The Work Ethic revisited.

Cooking has always been chemistry you can eat, the murmurations of swallows, Capitalism, the commons, and China, and a movie about moths but not Mothra