Sweden garnered both intense criticism and high praise for its conservative pandemic response. How did the country's COVID-19 outcomes compare to those of the US and other countries? From deforestation to climate change and pollution, headline after headline warns that we're rapidly destroying our planet. These scandalous assertions are out of step with the latest evidence.

Let’s put an end to doomscrolling for our own sake
Abandon ship!
Pizza boxes
Another lesson from trees

It’s a sad fact that minorities and women are underrepresented in clinical trials. As to why- that’s still a mystery. One thing is probable though; there’s some cultural mismatch between recruiters and the recruited. A recent study proposed a solution: simply pay minorities to participate. Is this valid – or another example of noblesse oblige – and cultural chauvinism?

Three important findings have emerged from recent research on COVID-19. First, long COVID -- the persistence of symptoms after the acute infection -- is common and can cause significant suffering and disability. Second, the ability of the bivalent booster to broaden recipients' immune response and reduce the frequency of hospitalizations and deaths has exceeded expectations. Third, the data argue for an intensive effort to convince more Americans to get the bivalent booster and to wear masks in moderate- and high-risk situations.

It probably won’t shock you that there’s a general perception that radiation is unusually dangerous. Even the slightest exposure can cause cancer, congenital disabilities, constipation, skin burns, bad breath, and death (well…most of these, anyhow)… so the public is scared of radiation. So it’s hardly surprising that the discovery of tritium (a radioactive form of hydrogen) in groundwater near the Brookhaven National Laboratory kindled months of media coverage

“Eating one bass is equivalent to drinking PFOS-tainted water for a month.” Those are the words of Scott Faber, senior VP for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. That is the message of a study by the EWG, carefully crafted to instill fear and drive regulatory science. It requires a carefully crafted response – here is mine.

Thanks largely to the press and some radical environmental groups most people are terrified of chemicals because they can give us cancer. Almost all of these scares are bogus, but one that isn't is a beloved chemical – alcohol. Unlike a diet soda, a glass of alcohol poses a legitimate risk.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, including those large language systems (e.g., ChatGPT), is gaining much traction. When “teaching for the test,” one system passed the U.S. Medical License Exam – a three-component test that's required in order to earn an MD degree. Will doctors be among the first white-collar (white-coat?) workers to be replaced by automation?

Every time you walk down a grocery store aisle, you are impacted by one of the most interesting federal regulations, FDA’s Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) rule. You might assume that the FDA has tested every ingredient in the food, but the GRAS rule allows the food industry to bring a wide array of substances to the market based on their history as being “generally recognized” as safe.

Shortages of widely prescribed drugs are endemic in the U.S. To address the problem, we need a policy change that would enable overseas manufacturers to sell products in the U.S. that already have received marketing approval from certain foreign governments with standards comparable to ours and vice versa. In other words, there should be reciprocity of drug approvals.