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To reduce payments to doctors by device manufacturers and pharma companies, the federal government instituted a regulatory policy, the Sunshine Act, in 2013. The goal was to allow the disinfecting nature of transparency to reduce the ethical problem of obligation when receiving "gifts." Two reports update how that battle seems to be going.

The COVID vaccine is out -- and no one needs it more than the elderly. But vaccines don't work as well in older people. A group at Oxford is trying to address this by adding a simple (but nasty-smelling) naturally-occurring chemical that makes damaged cells eat themselves.

The transformation of Hong Kong, less illuminated scientific pioneers, the many social distance circles, can you believe your lying eyes, and a mysterious ether holding the universe together - scientists call it dark matter.

Just how effective is the Pfizer vaccine? Turns out that in addition to being very effective, the onset of protection is quick - a therapeutic two-fer.

After Pfizer's COVID vaccine was administered in the UK, two allergic reactions surfaced. Who’s to blame? The drug maker? I argue no. Pfizer could not possibly have known in advance whether these reactions would occur or, if so, how frequently. Why's that? Here's why.

Cultured meat, not meat raised listening to Mozart, meat raised in a petri-dish or bioreactor, the emotional connotation of words like privilege, cybersecurity is this generations' asymmetric warfare, and while waiting to be vaccinated, take a moment for delight.

Some ingenious pharmacists have figured out how to get a sixth dose out of the "fill" in Pfizer's vaccine. Pfizer wants those magically-found "extra doses" counted towards its commitment to the U.S. government. And the company wants to be paid for what it's providing.

India’s population is 1.4 billion, four times greater than in the United States. Yet we have 26 million cases of COVID-19, while they have 10.8 million. As for fatalities, India is closing in on 160,000 through Feb. 4, while the U.S. has recorded 455,000 – nearly three times as many. Further, U.S. healthcare is generally believed to be better than India's. So what’s going on here? More importantly, what can we learn?

Can nudging consumers to make more nutritious grocery choices work? Can discounts and coupons alter our choices? A new study looks at personalized grocery shopping, with an eye towards nutrition and a gentle push motivated by savings. 

Is it too early to try and summarize what we have learned about the pandemic? Pompeii's lessons on recovering from disaster. Rules to live by?

Most individuals simply have a very unrealistic expectation as to how many calories they burn during exercise and what they can achieve in weight loss through exercise alone, even though they may have expended a great deal of effort to do so.

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied [Morley’s] Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard.” Our immune system, like those chains, contains our immunologic memories. Ferrets can teach us, that like Morley’s chains, our immunologic memory is forged by experience. Sometimes, a current viral illness may, later on, protect us from a similar viral infection; but we may not be as protected as we hope.

There has for some time been a schism in medicine between the doers and the thinkers. I’m a doer, a surgeon. My friends include a lot of thinkers, oncologists, infectious disease, primary care, pediatrics. I also have “thinker-friends” that are often more like me than their thinker brothers and sisters. They are often referred to as interventionalists – cardiologists in the catheterization laboratory or gastroenterologists with their scopes. 

Google Maps and privacy, mRNA vaccines - an overnight + 40 years sensation, can plants solve our CO2 problem, the cost of subscription services.

It remains a mystery to me why workers in “the business” of healthcare would be hesitant to be vaccinated. After all, they have high-risk exposure daily. 

Vitamin D is a ubiquitous compound found throughout our bodies. It’s tantalizingly featured in many studies to promote health – or not. But why the ambiguity? Is it a super-vitamin or is it simply misunderstood? Let’s take a look.

It's been well established that virus transmission is much less likely to occur outdoors than in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. Can we estimate how much airflow is needed to make an environment safe?

Dr. Jeffrey Singer of the Cato Institute and a member of the board of scientific advisors at ACSH has written a piece that should deliver a devastating blow to those who maintain the fallacy that prescription opioids are responsible for the so-called "opioid crisis." Although this trend is seen nationwide, nowhere is this more evident than in Massachusetts, where fentanyl is found in the blood of 91% of overdose victims — six times that of drugs like hydrocodone or oxycodone. A must-read.

For a minute, let’s suspend political views about COVID-19 vaccinations, masking, drugs; let’s put aside beliefs about vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, or refusal. Ethical considerations might help address the conflict between the forces that drive current positions: individualism and autonomy on one side versus solidarity and collectivism on the other. An ethical inquiry may promote a more equitable, practical, and effective approach. Let’s tease out the principles and see.

COVID-19 has brought telemedicine to the forefront of medical innovation. Think of it as a digital return of the house call. But is there steak beneath all that sizzle?

The notes of physicians are now freely available to patients. Is medical innovation fueled by theory or experiments? Another consideration in the Wuhan leak story, what are the limits to eminence over specific expertise? Finally, the nose knows - in this case how the receptors of smell are challenging lock and key.

Why are hospitals not reporting their prices? The real value of humor. Adopting technologies. Who is a doctor? And the tragedy of the commons.

September began with concerns about increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths across the nation, ending as new cases reached a plateau. These trends are consistent with nationwide spreading of the Delta virus variant. The future depends on interactions of vaccination reluctance with the virulent Delta variant and with a potential repeat of the previous winter peak. Is relief in sight? Are COVID-19 rates comparable to seasonal influenza rates as a reasonable goal?

Those are the words of Pliny the Elder (except for the COVID part). Coincidentally, he died while trying to save friends during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. As it turns out, today's home is also where COVID-19 comes to visit, brought in by household members.

Up until last week, CO2 levels have been the concern; now methane is in the mix. But what can we say about CO2 before adding to our worries? An article from The Conversation provides some infographics.