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The uptake of the current COVID vaccine is running at about 7% of the U.S. population. Pfizer is taking a significant write-off. After the pandemic, our trust in vaccinations has reached a nadir. It's a far cry from our behavior concerning smallpox in 1947 when, over eight days, over 4 million New Yorkers were vaccinated. Or compared to 1961, when 90% of the at-risk population got vaccinated against polio.

Everyone take a deep breath and relax. During these crazy times, people are making all kinds of wild predictions about what drug or vaccine will work. Dr. David Shlaes takes a sobering look at the chances for any of these therapies to work. It's not as easy as you'd think. We should all lower our expectations a bit.

It is common knowledge that the information that makes us unique is held in our DNA. But, how does our DNA make our eyes brown - how does it make us who we are? In order to understand that, we have to walk through the journey of how the information held in DNA becomes protein. 

When it comes to media and scientific reporting, the B cells have gotten most of the attention – it makes sense, they produce the antibodies in our first wave of defense against COVID-19. But the T cells have a significant role to play and have been disrespected. It is time to give our T-cell mediated immunity a little love.

Dr. David Shlaes' primary expertise is in bacterial infections and antibiotics. So it's not surprising that our ACSH advisor is wondering about secondary bacterial infections from coronavirus infections. Will there be antibiotics to combat the infections this time? How about next time?

A retired psychologist attacked an article of mine about deranged Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo's views of public health policies toward the COVID-19 pandemic. His assertions ranged from the preposterous to the merely inaccurate.

So far, 11 different variants of COVID-19 have been identified and assigned a Greek letter for identification. Although delta (originally from India) is making all kinds of trouble worldwide, it will eventually be replaced by something worse. All the more reason to get vaccinated now.

Vaccine skeptics continue to insist that the COVID shots are dangerous. As always, their favorite sources are the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and other similar passive surveillance databases. As cases of supposed vaccine injury are investigated, we come to the reassuring, though admittedly boring, conclusion that COVID-19 jabs pose a low risk to most people.

Today the Hamptons, the summer community on the East End of New York's Long Island, conjure up a beautiful-people, trendy vibe. But its past contains a dark genetic nightmare.

Politicians fail to understand that "gain of function" research on microorganisms can enhance public health preparedness.

Almost all doctors and nurses in the US have been fully immunized. A survey asked them about getting a booster and the answer was an enthusiastic "yes." But doctors and nurses have somewhat different responses, probably due to a difference in risk tolerance.

According to Sen. Rand Paul – an ophthalmologist, not an infectious disease specialist – natural immunity is better. While not being an infectious disease expert myself, I at least know enough to fact-check before speaking. So the answer, as is frequently the case, is: it depends.

Infectious disease experts predict another coronavirus pandemic in the future, so we need to be prepared. That will require both basic research to devise improved vaccines, including "universal" ones that will provide immunity against new variants, and cooperation from vaccine manufacturers.

In order to accurately capture the nuance of an article, especially those about scientific and medical matters, headline writers and editors should read the piece before composing a headline.

We are fortunate enough that there is now an FDA-approved drug called Paxlovid, which does an incredible job of keeping COVID patients out of the hospital (or morgue). Yet NBCNews.com chose a sensationalist, scary headline about the drug as its lead health story of the day. Really lousy journalism.

It's time for another installment of "The Health Ranger Chronicles," where we examine Mike Adams' claims about the supposed dangers of COVID vaccination. Adams and other Natural News writers have alleged that the shots are mind-control tools or bioweapons, and that planning for the pandemic began in 2015. This time, COVID-19 is apparently a real threat, but the vaccines are still more dangerous.

Though politicians and the public love to hate Big Ag and Big Pharma, everybody comes begging for help when the going gets tough. The arguments against biotechnology have been made exponentially weaker by the success of the coronavirus vaccine.

While the COVID crisis rages on across America, this massive epidemic and the coverage surrounding it -- while vitally important -- has effectively pushed another epidemic out of the media spotlight. Dr. Josh Bloom, ACSH's Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, and Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, co-authored an Op-Ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the current state of the opioid crisis, to remind us that, among other things, pain patients are hurting and they must not be forgotten.

The activist group GM has attacked gene-edited crops by alleging that they're designed to increase pesticide use. Is there any truth to this allegation? With millions of COVID vaccine doses administered since December 2020, what have we learned about the risks associated with the shots?

RNA interference – RNAi – functions specifically to silence, or deactivate, genes. Among other applications, it promises to be groundbreaking as a way to treat infections of bees by a commercially important parasitic pest, Varroa destructor.

Reporters and science communicators commonly point to widespread COVID misinformation to explain why so many people are skeptical of vaccines and other infection-control measures. Bad pandemic takes clearly influence the public, but there's much more to the story.

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.

As of today, people who are immunocompromised are allowed to receive a booster shot. Sounds simple, right? That is, until the madness becomes evident.

At the beginning of the year, the CDC and FDA noted “a preliminary safety signal for ischemic stroke among persons aged ≥65 years” who had received the COVID bi-valent vaccine, as well as a similar but "higher" signal in individuals receiving the influenza vaccine at the same time. Now, a study has confirmed that safety signal.

When combined, science and religion can be a powerful force for good. Let's use it to vanquish COVID.