A new study makes sense, but the analysis is missing some important controls. It’s football season, but that’s not the only grand American tradition going on right now. …

Nicely analyzed data suggests lifting mask mandates in schools led to higher infection rates. — On March 26th, 2022, Hawaii became the last state in the United States to lift its indoor mask mandate. By the time the current school year started, there were essentially no public school mask mandates either. Whether you viewed the mask as an emblem of stalwart defiance against a rampaging…

A new study suggests myocarditis rate much higher with Moderna vs. Pfizer vaccine. Let me start with a non-controversial statement. A small number of individuals who receive an mRNA vaccine will develop myocarditis. Myocarditis is a side-effect of these vaccines, albeit a rare one. It is a side-effect that has taken on an importance in the public consciousness that far outpaces its actual…

The US-based “ACTIV-6” study showed no effect of the drug on time-to-recovery for outpatients with COVID-19. It began in a petri dish. Ivermectin, a widely-available, cheap and well-tolerated drug on the WHO’s list of essential medicines for its critical role in treating river blindness, was shown to dramatically reduce the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture. You know the rest of the story. Despite the…

Many People Are Still Infectious on Day 6. — One of the more baffling decisions the CDC made during this pandemic was when they reduced the duration of isolation after a positive COVID test from 10 days to 5 days and did NOT require a negative antigen test to end isolation. Multiple studies had suggested, after all, that positive…

Have you ever lied about COVID-19? — Before you get upset, before the “how dare you”, I want you to think carefully. Did you have COVID-19 (or think you did) and not mention it to someone you were going to be with? Did you tell someone you were taking more COVID precautions than you really were? Did…

New algorithms are changing the landscape of diabetes care, but a “functional cure” remains elusive. — It was 100 years ago when Leonard Thompson, age 13, received a reprieve from a death sentence. Young master Thompson had Type 1 diabetes — a disease that was uniformly fatal within months of diagnosis. But he received a new treatment, insulin, from a canine pancreas. He would live 13…

The purpose of the updated booster is not only to prevent Omicron infections. — The CDC recommendations for who should get an omicron booster are very straightforward. Everyone, basically, if you are above age 12, at least 2 months out from your original vaccine series or most recent booster shot, and at least 90 days out from a COVID infection. This makes a significant…

How you walk may be more important than how much you walk. — 10,000 steps a day. I know you’ve heard the number. A number that reminds us to get up, move around, walk to the store instead of drive there. 10,000 steps is achievable, but not precisely easy, at least if you have a job that keeps you sitting in front of…