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 Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. Reminder, Resilience: One Family’s Story… is increasingly pertinent, as some of our politicians shift rightward. All proceeds go to Holocaust education. Available here. News Covid: US extends COVID health emergency Health officials in the United States extended the COVID-19 public health emergency again, as the world closely watches developments there with XBB.1.5 and looks for clarity on China’s evolving surge. Cases and deaths are still rising. The 7-day average for new daily COVID-19 cases is 67,514, up 17% compared to a week ago, according to Washington Post tracking. By the same measure, deaths are up 8%, while hospitalizations are down 9%. As schools resume after the holidays, some are ordering temporary mask mandates due to elevated levels of COVID and other respiratory viruses, ABC News reported. More than 82% of XBB.1.5 sequences are from US Along with BQ.1 subvariants, XBB.1.5 is one of…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. Reminder, Resilience: One Family’s Story… is increasingly pertinent, as some of our politicians shift rightward. All proceeds go to Holocaust education. Available here. News Covid: XBB.1 variant At today’s briefing, Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, said XBB.1.5 has been detected in 29 countries so far and is the most transmissible subvariant detected so far. “We are concerned about its growth advantage,” she said. So far, there are no data on severity or the clinical picture, (also) while XBB.1.5 is equally as immune evasive as the two other XBB lineages — which had a significant amount of antibody escape, according to a paper in Nature — it has a higher affinity for ACE2, which explains its increased transmissibility. ~ ~ ~ FDA warns it does not anticipate that the drug Evusheld will neutralize XBB.1.5 ~ ~ ~ US metrics all on the upswing…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. New post: A fun post to end the year, reminding me of why I like infectious diseases so much as a specialty. So much weirdness and sleuthing! What Do A Raccoon, Aquarium, And Walmart’s Aromatherapy Spray Have In Common? https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2022/12/28/what-do-a-raccoon-aquarium-and-walmarts-aromatherapy-spray-have-in-common/?sh=da709c7723a1 News Covid: “There are currently more than 66,045 cases reported in the United States per day, with test positivity of 12%. When test positivity is above 5%, transmission is considered uncontrolled. There are more than 473 deaths per day, and hospitalizations have increased 22% over the last two weeks. Since many are using home tests that are not reported through public health or are not testing at all, the official case counts underestimate the actual prevalence of COVID-19. https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/what-covid-19-variants-are-going-around ~ ~ ~ @morganstephensa Dec 29, 2022 some important research. Latest in @Nature find…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. ~ ~ ~ New Post: Planning A Caribbean Vacation? Here Are Some Infections To Consider Protecting Yourself Against https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2022/12/19/planning-a-caribbean-vacation-here-are-some-infections-to-consider-protecting-yourself-against/?sh=623576535ac0 News Covid: Pre-procedure and pre-admission COVID-19 testing no longer recommended for asymptomatic patients Health care facilities should no longer routinely screen symptom-free patients for COVID-19 upon admission or before procedures and rely instead on enhanced layers of infection prevention interventions, according to a recommendation from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-12-pre-procedure-pre-admission-covid-longer-asymptomatic.html? ~ ~ ~ Scientists find key reason why loss of smell occurs in long COVID-19 The reason some people fail to recover their sense of smell after COVID-19 is linked to an ongoing immune assault on olfactory nerve cells and an associated decline in the number of those cells, a team of…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. News Infectious diseases fellowships go unfilled for newly minted doctors: 44% of training programs are unfilled. Why do 2-3 more years training to get lower pay? Unfolding disaster https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/12/1142250941/newest-doctors-shun-infectious-diseases-specialty ~ ~ ~ Vaccine effectiveness: A new CDC study of non-immunocompromised adults finds that receiving a bivalent Covid booster dose (after 2, 3, or 4 monovalent doses) reduced the risk of hospitalization by 57% compared with being unvaccinated and by 45% compared with being unboosted. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm715152e2.htm? ~ ~ ~ @JReinerMD Dec 12 COVID cases are up 53% over the past 14 days. Hospitalizations are up 30% and deaths are up 39%. Protect yourself. ~ ~ ~ COVID-19: What we know about new omicron variant BF.7 Since the COVID variant omicron emerged in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into multiple subvariants. One subvariant, BF.7,…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. News Covid: Which Respiratory Virus Do I Have? – There’s a range of possibilities, and it’s not easy to tell them apart [Good summary] https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/102007? ~ ~ ~ Nanobody treatment shows promise against SARS-CoV-2 infection https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-12-nanobody-treatment-sars-cov-infection.html ~ ~ ~ 41.6 percent of adults have serology indicative of past COVID-19 infection More than 40 percent of U.S. adults have serology indicative of past COVID-19 infection, of whom 43.7 percent report never having had COVID-19, https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-12-percent-adults-serology-indicative-covid-.html ~ ~ ~ Paxlovid Has Been Free So Far. Next Year, Sticker Shock Awaits. Currently $530 each, a discount for buying in bulk. Pfizer’s Covid shots will quadruple in price, from the discount rate the government pays of $30 to about $120. Federal law restricts Medicare Part D – the prescription drug program that covers nearly 50 million seniors –…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. New Posts: Learn To “See” C. Difficile To Protect Yourself From This Serious Infection https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2022/11/28/learn-to-see-c-difficile-to-protect-yourself-from-this-serious-infection/?sh=7afb157b6fb9 ~ ~ ~ What Can We Learn From The Growing Measles Outbreak In Ohio? https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2022/11/29/what-can-we-learn-from-the-growing-measles-outbreak-in-ohio/?sh=7283b4813430 News Covid US markers show upward trends In the United States, the 7-day average for new daily COVID-19 cases is at 43,692, up nearly 8% compared to the week before, according to the Washington Post tracker. Daily averages for new COVID hospitalizations and deaths are also up, 21% and 24%, respectively. In other developments, Twitter announced last week that it will no longer enforce a policy put in place to curb COVID-19 misinformation. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/11/covid-19-cases-stable-globally-rise-2-regions ~ ~ ~ FDA ended its emergency authorization for bebtelovimab the only remaining Covid-19 antibody therapy cleared for use, saying variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 that render it ineffective are now dominant in the…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty ‘Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. New format: Apparently Tidbits is not loading properly for some. While my web techie helpers try to figure this out, I’ve drastically reduced images. If this doesn’t work, I will be sending posts in 2 parts, 1 the Covid/medical and the other, the Politics. I will also be embedding far fewer Tweets and images to try to reduce load time. Please let me know if that helps it work better, though it’s not as eye-catching. Or would you prefer more images (like those that go with Tweets) and the newsletter split into two? You can reach me at drjudystone at gmail dot com. Please put “Tidbits” in the subject line. Thx. Thanks. News Covid: Study ties Paxlovid to lower COVID-19 hospitalization rate Adult US COVID-19 patients who received the antiviral drug Paxlovid within…
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Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty Announcements: First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting. Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that. With Twitter taking a nosedive and likely to soon be destroyed by Musk, the format here will likely be evolving. There will be no embedded tweets and fewer pictures to break things up. I will take screenshots of some tweets for visuals for now, but formatting probably won’t be uniform. Please let me know how these changes are working for you. It’s a nightmare for me–Twitter is THE best place for real time infectious disease news and misc news, especially that not covered by mainstream press. Georgia: @Bob_Casey Nov 16 Since coming to Washington, @ReverendWarnock has delivered results for the people of Georgia. His character, integrity, and heart of service distinguishes him in this race. And, let’s be clear: winning Georgia is CRITICAL. Here’s what it means if we have a 51-49 Senate…
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