When asked in early 2000 how long I thought COVID-19 would last, I answered three years. Alas, it has now been nearly six years since a frightening respiratory disease was first noticed in Hubei Province centered in Wuhan. Retrospective analyses indicate the virus was already circulating in other parts of the world. It soon became […]
Read more...Part the First: The Next Surgeon General Prepares for her Closeup. In a surprise to absolutely no one, Casey Means MD discloses financial ties to supplement industry. New financial disclosures from surgeon general nominee Casey Means show that she’s made hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting supplements and other health and wellness products, details likely […]
Read more...Part the First: Unintended Side Effects of Vaccines. From Science-Based Medicine this week: Unintended Side Effects HPV and Shingles Vaccines—Reason for Concern. This headline is genius in its indirection: Emerging trends in the peer-reviewed scientific literature show new evidence of unintended effects of two popular vaccines—the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and shingles vaccines. Surprising findings […]
Read more...We have previously discussed what the Ancients can teach us. As it turns out, they can teach us much. But things get more dire by the day. Anyone and everyone can make a list of our pathologies. A week of reading the news shows us that as a polity, society, and culture we are in […]
Read more...Part the First: Make Polio Great Again! And measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, bacterial meningitis, chickenpox/shingles, cervical cancer, hepatitis B! The title of Part the First comes from an old friend in both senses of the word. He is one of the very few Florida natives you would ever meet. But he is not a […]
Read more...Part the First and Only on this Friday Afternoon: One More Revolution of the Accelerating Doom Loop of Science. The following is an update to our previous discussion earlier this week. As everyone should know by now, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has fired the Director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. […]
Read more...The American scientific community is in a difficult place. I started my first job in an academic research laboratory (funded by the Energy Research and Development Administration and the National Science Foundation) in 1975, which somehow was fifty years ago when I was the youngest person in the laboratory instead of the oldest. I have […]
Read more...Part the First: Beware Scientific Jargon. But everyone here already knows that. Nevertheless, this is a perpetual challenge for every scientist and other scholar who wants to be understood by our fellow citizens without “dumbing it down.” Scientific jargon can be ‘satisfying’ — but misleading. Jargon works especially well for those of my tribe who […]
Read more...Part the First: AI and Deskilling in Healthcare. Yes, it does happen as described in the news article As AI spreads through health care, is the technology degrading providers’ skills? (New study suggests that, after having a specialized tool taken away, clinicians were less proficient at colonoscopies): The AI colonoscopy tool rolled out across four […]
Read more...The 7 August 2025 issue of Nature included an interesting article on The Science Fiction Science Method (paywall) by Iyad Rahwan, Azim Shariff, and Jean-François Bonnefon. The scientific method is difficult enough to understand these days, especially regarding previously important but mundane scientific advances such as vaccines. The Science Fiction Science (SFS) Method is likely […]
Read more...Part the First: Is This How to Do Science? San Diego, with the University of California-San Diego and the Scripps Research Institute leading the way, has been a Biotech/Little Pharma hotspot since the beginning, a strong third behind Boston and the Bay Area. Ups and downs are common, but in the current climate it is […]
Read more...Part the First: How Do You Awaken Sleeping Cancer Cells. Short answer: Inflammation. Speaking from experience, anyone who have ever been treated successfully for cancer never fully relaxes after his or her tumor or condition is resolved. Formerly metastatic cells can remain dormant for a long time. Recent research has shown how they are reawakened. […]
Read more...In the United States, the aim of the Current Administration is to support something called “gold-standard science.” Their clear implication is that American scientists have been publishing something less than the gold standard – perhaps silver or bronze, or maybe even brass, when gold is the standard of the day (here and here). We have […]
Read more...Part the First: The Healthcare Costs of Fossil Fuels. One would think this is a no-brainer. Nevertheless, the Current Administration has its stone cold heart set on gutting the Office of Research and Development in the Environmental Protection Agency. I suppose it would be churlish once again to note the EPA is one of the […]
Read more...Part the First: Pharmacopeia. Who doesn’t love a garden? It sometimes seems that all drugs come from plants, initially. My first biology teachers claimed they were taught that bacteria were plants back when life was either animal or plant. Garden of Healing is a bit long but very interesting. It is also a break from […]
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