Now that the paper published in The Lancet, on the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, has been retracted, we need to look at how eminence continues to trump evidence. When we talk about humans and their behavior, everything is political.

In the first days of the pandemic, our thinking was greatly influenced by models of viral spread and the Imperial College. Also, IHME work comes readily to mind. As we enter months four and five, we have more and more objective evidence from our experience with COVID-19. So the question now is: Should we make policy based upon the models, or the evidence?

We tend to overlook how natural disasters like the coronavirus pandemic shape human behavior. Maybe that should change.

A “counterintuitive” view of ice sheet melts and sea level rises, the comfort of mac and cheese, often wrong, never in doubt, ignoring the marshmallow experiment, and an in-depth look at a painting of surgical care.

We're social animals, and we want to socialize. We're also lazy, and we want to do whatever is easiest or most convenient. Those two facts about human nature, far more than the coronavirus, will shape our future.

SDOH, the social determinants of health, have gotten significant press during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been much discussed in medical and healthcare circles for the last few years. And some feel that like similarly positioned telemedicine, SDOH is about to have its moment.

Universal healthcare, which is touted as a solution to all of America's healthcare woes, is not necessarily a cure. Universal healthcare can be universally bad, as it is in Poland.

While sadly, ACSH founder Dr. Elizabeth Whelan passed away in 2014, she left plenty of herself behind. After you read what Christine, her daughter, and now Eleanor, her granddaughter, have done, you'll have to pinch yourself. But this story is real. And really something. And just plain amazing. Read it and you'll see why.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has made brutally clear the need for further research into many aspects of viruses. In this article, we compile data about the basic properties of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and about how it interacts with the body." Image from Science Forum: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) by the numbers eLIfe

One thing that we know for sure is that the “you use it, you lose it” law of antimicrobial resistance rules. This means that the use of antibiotics -- whether appropriate or not -- will select for the emergence of resistant pathogens. Therefore, we can expect an increase in bacterial resistance in our hospitals – globally.