This letter was published on May 21, 2009 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Whether you are traveling around the world or relaxing at home, a safe, healthy vacation will add to your enjoyment. Here are some health and safety tips to keep in mind when planning your summer vacation.

New York, New York—May 2009. Nothing can spoil vacations faster than a severe case of poison ivy, an intense sunburn, or a life-threatening allergic reaction to a bee sting. It is possible, however, to keep such threats at bay with a little foresight and care.

The satire program "The Daily Show" hosted by comedian Jon Stewart recently turned its laser beam of humor on people who were critical of First Lady Michelle Obama idealizing her gardener. Ironically, they make the case nicely while hoping to defend her.

This press release from ABC News's John Stossel announced his scheduled one-hour show for Friday, March 8, 2009 -- with the final paragraph mentioning his interview of ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava:
This Friday at 10 p.m. ET, I have another "20/20" special, "You Can't Even Talk About It." We tackle touchy taboos, like:

Judgment calls are inescapable in the practice of medicine. Physicians and patients must choose among different courses of treatment based on imperfect knowledge and incomplete information.

This piece first appeared on the Wall Street Journal's site OpinionJournal.com.
The news is a-chatter about swine flu. Is a pandemic pending--where all of us are at risk of disease and death? There are more questions than answers right now. Here are a few of them:

In 2000, African leaders vowed to reduce malaria deaths by 50% in ten years. Tomorrow marks the ninth anniversary of the vow, and though it hasn't been fulfilled, we are drawing very close to another marker of malaria's toll: 100 million dead from malaria since the Environmental Protection Agency's 1972 ban on DDT, the insecticide best suited to combat malarial mosquitoes.

This piece first appeared in Pharmacology Matters, the newsletter of the British Pharmacological Society, Vol 2(1); 9-11, April, 2009:

For almost 100 years, industry has been a powerful motivating force in the creation of new technology and the underwriting of scientific research. But in the last two decades, there has been a campaign to decry industry funding, claiming that such funding is tainting research.
It is not who funds the research; it is the quality of the research that counts. This rush to judgment against industry-funded science is problematic.