There is a growing body of evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading. Here’s a rundown of what we know:
Continue reading SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is spreading, but there is good news
The first possible case of community spread of COVID-19 was reported by the CDC on Wednesday February 26, and the tone of information disseminated to the American public has taken a decidedly serious turn. What do we do now?
Continue reading A Mysterious Case of COVID-19 has Appeared in the U.S. What do we do now?
There is an overwhelming amount of information about coronavirus circulating on the internet these days. Here are five ideas and sentiments that are utterly false.
Continue reading Five Myths About Coronavirus Debunked
I recently binged the Wondery podcast Bad Batch from reporter Laura Beil. Like her previous podcast Dr. Death, Beil leads us through another fascinating medical mystery. This time, a handful of patients in Texas, Florida, and Arizona develop life-threatening infections after receiving an injection of stem cells.
Continue reading The Promise of Stem Cells Sells
For more information:
WHO
DynaMed Plus
Cloudy Media Blog posts about Ebola
Tardigrades have significantly bolstered their IMDb profiles over the past year. With appearances in Star Trek: Discovery and South Park, the adorable micro-animals are having a moment. Continue reading Tardigrades are all the rage
Weaving personal stories with patient narratives, Dr. Victor Montori shines a light on the corruption plaguing the American healthcare system in his book Why We Revolt.
Somewhat suprisingly, Montori’s “soulful download” is neither preachy nor political. It is elegant poetry in which the care required to craft such a masterpiece is the very example of the care that Montori wishes for all patients.
Patients, not described as medically illiterate, hopeless beings, but as experts of their own circumstance. Experts who should be involved in their own medical decisions (ie. shared decision making) with minimal disruption to their life, if possible.
Some passages appear to target physicians, while others meant for patients. Yet the totality is an interwoven work of art combining-bridging-melding the two into a singular audience to which Montori speaks for his revolution. Because it is neither an onus of solely the patient nor the physician to revolt. Minimally disruptive care requires compassion and conversation that merely starts with the individual encounters of patient and physician.
Ultimately, Montori is not just critical of the system, but offers a vision of what health care should be. Perhaps, through a revolution for patients with patience, what it can be.
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are a-changing, there is a crispness in the air, and you’re finding it impossible to NOT purchase Halloween candy that you will inevitably eat and have to buy again anyway. Oh, and your local pharmacy, Facebook feed, tv, magazines, and just about any other media outlet are reminding you to go get your flu shot.
So sorry for the lengthy gap between blog posts dear faithful readers! Responsibilities at work are in the process of shifting (I hope to have more to officially say about that in the near future) and I’m currently participating in a vicious weekly battle with the real estate market of the greater Boston area. So needless to say, I’ve had very little time to devote to all that is cloudy in the media. Alas, the March for Science is 2 weeks away and I wanted to post something before and after this momentous day.
The March for Science is scheduled to take place on Saturday April 22, 2017, which is also appropriately Earth day. The March will officially be held at the National Mall in Washington, DC, but there will also be sister marches in more than 425 other cities around the world.
Despite that it may seem to be, participating in the March and standing up for science is not a political issue. Yes, we need federal money to fund research grants, and yes, the government regulates that, but there exists anti-science rhetoric at both ends of the political spectrum. Understanding that vaccines protect us from dangerous pathogens and GMOs are safe are just as important as accepting that we’ve evolved from single-celled organisms and that the Earth (with life on it) has existed long before Adam and Eve.
In preparation for the March for Science, I’ve been thinking of a making a few posters. What do you think of these?
I may be a scientist, but one needn’t be to participate in the March. Consider the ways science influences your life and March for that. Here are my reasons:
I March because science isn’t just a series of classes we had to take in school,
but a way of thinking
I March because science paves the way for innovation and technological advancement
I March because we are all scientists, whether our experiments
happen in a kitchen or in a lab
I March because science holds truths about the universe we have yet to discover
I March because science (and it’s truths) exist whether I believe in them or not
What do you March for?
Just a day after reading about a woman in Nevada who died from a bacterial infection resistant to EVERY SINGLE antibiotic, I discovered that my sister had just finished a course of antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection known as pharyngitis. Not all that interesting until you consider that my sister had strep test-negative pharyngitis, meaning not caused by the bacteria Streptococcus. As my palm smacked my forehead in disbelief and I attempted to explain why taking antibiotics might not have been a great idea, I said to myself, “gosh darn it Heather, you’ve got a blog, go blog.” Continue reading Our Precious Antibiotics