Politics, Science, and Other Assorted Musings
I love helping people understand issues and look at them from a different perspective. In this blog, I hope I can offer you some new insights—bridging the gap between basic science and your medicine chest—as I am still a practicing physician, as well as having had broad clinical research experience. I'm interested in developing new medicines and treatments, as well as caring for patients—and explaining these topics for you.
As medicine has evolved, so have my interests. I have also become increasingly interested in health disparities, social justice issues, and ethics. I invite you to join me as we explore a variety of territories. I hope that reading these posts will encourage you to learn, engage, and above all, work for the forces of good.
If there are topics you'd like to see me cover, please let me know—I welcome your input as to what you would like us to discuss in this column.
Coronavirus - COVID19
Please note that I will be posting Coronavirus Tidbits of news here. You can sign up for updates by clicking the box at the right and subscribe to Covid, Politics, and Science. All Covid posts will go here, and I will upload back issues as I have time. Please share w friends. Thanks!
I’m going to have a reference file here for articles I have found particularly worthwhile, and will update this here as we learn new information. Click on the COVID-19 Resources, below, to expand that.
If you see something terrific, please share. We’re all in this together.
Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Note: Tidbits will be abbreviated for a bit while I try to catch up and deal w technical issues. Also need to take a bit more breaks. I’ve moved people from my emails to this automated mailing when I have a new issue. Please refer people to this site: https://www.drjudystone.com/politics-science-and-other-assorted-musings/ My web designer is working to put that signup on each post as well, to make it easier for folks to sign up. Please continue to send questions, great resources, or nice things that are happening. Thx. News: CDC now advises people to wear a mask in public to help slow spread of Coronavirus from asymptomatic people. Setting a bad example yet again, and asked why he won’t wear a covering, Trump said: “I just don’t want to wear one myself…I’m feeling good…I just don’t want to…somehow sitting in the Oval Office…the great Resolute Desk…I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents…dictators…I dunno, I don’t see it.” ~ ~ ~ Americans are underestimating how long coronavirus disruptions will last, health experts say https://t.co/VL50YikQeC?amp=1 via @statnews ~ ~ ~ Capt….
Read MoreThis page will have be “live” with real-time updates as I learn of them. If you have other ones of national or regional interest I should add, please let me know via comments. Thanks. From AARP and Town Hall Project of MoveOn.org (an interesting partnership, the new Odd Couple) Everywhere we look, people are working together—city by city and block by block—to develop teams and resources to meet the needs of our most vulnerable loved ones and face this pandemic together. These are mutual aid networks. Small groups of neighbors asking for and offering help. Click here to find a mutual aid network near you. This will take you to a map of local groups that’s been compiled by Town Hall Project and AARP (which is not a MoveOn project, but we think it’s an incredible resource many of us will want to plug into). You might need help right now, or maybe you can deliver groceries, pick up prescriptions, offer translation services, provide tutoring support, or just be virtual company for someone struggling with self-quarantine. We know there are a million ways (not an exaggeration) that individuals are helping each other and communities are creating mutual support. The map keeps growing, and you…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty News: New post: People Can Spread Coronavirus For Up To Three Days Before Having Symptoms This means we will have to be much more careful to maintain distancing and STAY at HOME. It will also likely lead to a push for the public to wear masks when out. ~ ~ ~ NYTimes: nearly a quarter of the city’s emergency medical service workers out sick, according to the Fire Department. In all, 2,800 members of the Fire Department are sidelined, including about 950 of the city’s 4,300 paramedics. Nearly 16% of the New York Police Department’s uniformed force is off sick, with more than 1,000 officers testing positive for the virus so far. ~ ~ ~ NYC is converting *all its public hospitals* in ICU units for COVID-19. “Patients who do not have the virus will be sent to large-scale temporary hospitals or to hotels that are being converted into temporary medical facilities.” ~ ~ ~ We’re Betraying Our Doctors and Nurses – “Many of my colleagues are making wills, they’ve sent their families away. People are scared, & rightfully…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Coronavirus Tidbits #24 News: My new post How Much Should You Worry About Your Pets? A Cat Was Confirmed To Be Infected With COVID19 By Its Owner ~ ~ ~ From Orban to Kaczynski, Wannabe Autocrats Love the Pandemic In Hungary and Poland — as in Israel and elsewhere — liberty suddenly seems cheap. Even in a pandemic, it shouldn’t be. bloomberg.com Hungarian legislature adopted an “empowerment law” (which sounds very much like the 1930’s “enabling act” which led to Hitler’s rise. Orban can now rule by decree, with no limits–indefinitely. It is an appalling story, done in the name of the coronavirus emergency. I wonder how many wannabe dictators will follow suit. He has extensive new powers including imprisoning people for “distorting” facts. The author, Andreas Kluth, says Poland and Hungary are providing a user’s manual for such takeovers, a “coronavirus coup.” He says Bibi, Cambodian PM, India’s Modi, and Brazil are following suit. Hungary and Poland have also stacked the court with loyalists who will presumably support their moves, and the EU can’t punish them w/o unanimity….
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Coronavirus Tidbits # News Fauci predicts millions of coronavirus cases in US, and more than 100,000 deaths Trump now agrees to extend the social distancing recommendation until the end of April, after recently saying he wanted the country “opened up and raring to go” by Easter” ~ ~ ~ This morning’s WTH? Pay cuts and withholding back pay for some doctors and nurses as they battle on the front line of #COVID19 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/27/metro/coronavirus-rages-doctors-hit-with-cuts-compensation/?event=event25 via @BostonGlobe ~ ~ ~ Damning article on #preparedness vs profit: The U.S. Tried to Build a New Fleet of #Ventilators. The Mission Failed. https://nyti.ms/3arXrzD ~ ~ ~ Lack of PPE and ventilators is criminal negligence: ER Doctor Sick With Coronavirus: ‘Nothing Right Now Is Sustainable’ | HuffPost More than 150 health care workers are out ill with COVID19 in Boston hospitals, though these are being attributed to community spread. The question remains, how soon will there be a desperate shortage of HCWs. And in Seattle, as I wrote yesterday, nurses are issuing…
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News: Best news of the day: ‘Going full-on MacGyver’ – U of MN doctor creates makeshift ventilators to battle COVID-19 Even better, in some ways, he’s also made the plans OPEN Source and will be updating here Physical Prototype Video: https://youtu.be/3ssVoWEVxw4 CAD Prototype Video: https://youtu.be/RpEqtGa2vTI Diagnostics: Rapid diagnostic tests are winning approval, like this 5-minute coronavirus test by Abbott Laboratories that won emergency FDA approval The problem is that we don’t yet know enough about the accuracy of the tests, known as sensitivity and specificity? In particular, is a negative test really negative. Until we know more, many ID experts recommend assuming someone who has symptoms is infectious, even if the test is negative. Drugs: Trump’s push for risky malaria drugs disrupts coronavirus response “All this buzz is confusing the American public,” said one senior Health and Human Services official involved in drug policy. “Using untested medicines without the right evidence will raise false hope and even do more harm than good — and cause a shortage of essential medicines that are needed to treat other diseases,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization. The battle over chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: On the one hand: Medical experts and scientists “We need to…
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News Wondering if you should seek care for suspected COVID-19? Apple and CDC have a new app and symptom checker with a decision tool. https://www.apple.com/covid19 When can we stop the social distancing? We can’t…at least until there is widespread testing. Then you could monitor and slowly loosen restrictions in selected areas. “To consider letting off on social distancing will require sharp decline in cases, widely available rapid diagnostics wherever pts get clinical care, the right PPE available to all HCWS who need it, safe and good hospital capacity to deal with all pts with COVID.” Tom Inglesby, Johns Hopkins Here’s a thread by Scott Gottlieb that explains more: Our path to safety rests on massive support for our healthcare system to care for sick, and forceful steps by local leaders to break chains of transmission and quell epidemic spread. If we’re smart and aggressive across nation, cases nationally could peak by late April. Then what’s next? We’ll be able to transition away from population based tactics aimed at keeping people at home, to more case based interventions that target people with disease. But we’ll need new public health tools, technology, and tactics to make this transition work…more at https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1243333347012751361.html ~~~…
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