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June and July saw substantial changes in the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially reflecting the competition between relief from vaccination and the spread of the more contagious delta variant of the virus. These changes varied by time and place; here we seek perspective by examining temporal trends in six regions of the US [1]

Is there *nothing* so offensive and juvenile that it's off-limits, even to me? Maybe not.

Masks offer some protection against COVID-19 infection, but not nearly as much as the authorized vaccines. By telling the public they have to continue masking after immunization, we all but guarantee skeptics will forgo both shots and masks.

I've been following (and writing about) Antibe Therapeutics' otenaproxesul, an atypical NSAID without the GI toxicity of Aleve or Advil, since early 2020. It's been nothing but good news. Until now. Otenaproxesul caused a substantial jump in liver enzymes in some clinical trial participants. Can the company overcome this? Wall Street sure doesn't think so.

Studies investigating serious side effects associated with the COVID-19 vaccines are beginning to give us a better sense of how safe the shots are. Despite what you may see on Twitter, the evidence continues to show that vaccination poses minimal risk to the vast majority of people.

Viral evolution, school lunch, soil science, and life on Mars.

EPIC is arguably THE electronic health record system in the US with the most significant market share (56% of all patient records). Countless millions of federal money have passed into their corporate coffers during our transition to digital record keeping. Artificial intelligence, which is more sizzle than steak, at least medical care has been held out as a grail where the data held in electronic health records could be fashioned to improve medical care. A study from JAMA updates us on that particular marriage.

A new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association tells us what anyone with two functioning brain cells already knows: When patients on long-term opioid therapy have their meds tapered, bad things happen. Here are the details.

Despite relatively high vaccine uptake, New York City is about to enact mandatory shots for all residents before they can visit indoor restaurants, gyms and entertainment centers. This is unhelpful at best and counterproductive at worst.

Writing for the Reason Foundation, Jacob James Rich and Robert Capodilupo tell us what we already know – that Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) may have had a purpose when first initiated but that time has passed. Now the programs, which are intrusive and possibly a HIPAA violation, serve only to drive up black-market drug use.

As the Delta variant becomes THE primary source of COVID-19 infections there’s a growing body of knowledge to explain why this is happening. Let's consider two new studies and a fact we may have forgotten.

Three well-known anti-GMO groups have attacked the New York Times for publishing a generally excellent story about crop biotechnology. Natural News, for example, called the article "pure propaganda masquerading as journalism." Unsurprisingly, Natural News is wrong.

CMS provides a twice-annual snapshot of the care and concerns of Medicare beneficiaries. They just released the latest survey that ended in April. We have time to take in a few curated highlights.

The CDC is again recommending that fully vaccinated Americans mask up in certain circumstances. This is bad advice at odds with the available evidence that will only seed more vaccine hesitancy.

The Philippines has finally approved Golden Rice, a genetically engineered crop designed to combat vitamin A deficiency. Greenpeace, never content to let evidence guide its agenda, has trotted out some mealymouthed justifications to urge regulators to reverse the decision.

New CDC recommendations say that the use of masks indoors should be governed by the level of COVID transmission in a particular area. But the agency's plan is unworkable. Here's why.

I never really got into fishing, although I have many friends and family who love it. While it’s not the reason I don’t fish, I was surprised to find out recently how hazardous it is – according to statistics, fishing accounts for about 80,000 injuries every year in the US alone, [1] and that doesn’t even get into things like drowning, electrocution, and so forth. And when we look at the dangers of commercial fishing, things get even worse. Reading that chapter made me wonder why any sane person would ever pick up a rod and reel and go anywhere near the water. 

How do you protect a baby who can't get vaccinated from relatives who won't get vaccinated? Scientific arguments don't work, but proper incentives and boundaries just might. Here's what I've discovered in my first few weeks of parenthood.

The FDA needs to step up and fix the definition of strength. "Business as usual” under the existing language of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 means continued disincentives to promote a more aggressive uptake of biosimilars.

Sometimes an article cries out for attention. This one did because it is a great example of association, not causation. Which did come first, the medication or the loneliness?

I was taking out the trash and recycling the other day, and as I was dumping things into the cans-and-bottles bin and the paper-and-cardboard bin, I started thinking about radioactive waste. Because who doesn’t, right? And in particular, I was wondering yet again why the US disposes of our spent fuel rather than trying to get every bit of utility out of it. We used to – we just stopped. Odd.

Leisure inequality? – say it ain’t so, the shameless way we care for our veterans, the New York Times paper of record or advocate? Why is travel to another country increasingly difficult.

COVID-19 has brought telemedicine to the forefront of medical innovation. Think of it as a digital return of the house call. But is there steak beneath all that sizzle?

There’s no doubt that obesity is a growing global problem. It lies at one end of the spectrum from its less-discussed – but equally malnourished – polar opposite: hunger. Given that some argue that defining obesity as a disease will change the trajectory of the problem for the better, it’s time for a closer examination.  

The "Broken Window" theory is among the most widely-known ideas in policing. It’s been very controversial to say the least. But what if we don’t understand how to address the broken window? A new study looks at fixing the window, rather than pursuing the one who threw the rock.