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COVID-19 has drifted away from public view, and current outcome rates have been submerged into statistical noise. So it seems to be a good time to tote up where we have been, and the total impacts on public health.

Blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Blah! You'd think this wretched ritual would have disappeared long ago, especially once Covid made its appearance. But people are still doing it. Furthermore, the science to determine whether this practice can make you sick is faulty. Have a strong stomach.

The courts have found that FDA's tobacco policies are arbitrary and capricious. The medical community calls them unscientific and harmful.

There are upticks in early indicators of a COVID surge, including hospitalizations, test positivity, and SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater. And a new Omicron subvariant is rapidly gaining in prevalence. We need to prepare.

Chatbots’ ease of use and ability to rapidly create human-like text, including everything from reports, essays, and recipes to computer code, ensure that the AI revolution will be a powerful tool for students at every level to improve their capabilities and expertise. The list of apps and services is growing longer every day. But, like most powerful technologies, the use of chatbots offers challenges as well as opportunities. We need strategies to minimize the former and accentuate the latter.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that Affirmative Action in university admissions is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Compulsory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements in applications for university faculty positions and graduate school admissions should soon follow.

In a recent article in the New York Times about fraud in the dietary supplement industry, Rina Raphael recognized ACSH's work in the field by quoting Josh Bloom, the director of chemical and pharmaceutical science. We all thank Ms. Raphael for using ACSH as a resource.

Some have decided it's over and heralded the end of the pandemic; others say they are not sure. The answer to this recurring question requires a few definitions and statistical regressions.

Although COVID-19 is giving us a temporary respite, influenza in humans and animals remains a serious threat. Its deadly H5N1 strain is spreading geographically and in more species of mammals, making the emergence of a pandemic strain more likely. We need to prepare.

A recent photo published on a local community bulletin board shows some maniac snorkeling in the Bronx River, a former toilet of New York Coty. What could he be looking for? Turds? Or worse ... Yankee tickets?

Five years after the driver of Uber’s autonomous car killed a pedestrian, the driver pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to no prison time, just three years of supervised probation. The law is designed to fill a deterrence function and mete-out punishment for wrongdoing. So, did the law serve its function here? Does the law appropriately address these new technologies?

To space and beyond
A tale of statistics
Are we part of Earth’s microbiome?
The astronomical cost of drugs for rare orphan diseases

Is the “moral injury” experienced by physicians self-inflicted?
Even chocolate is a monopoly
No Brown M&Ms
The power of checklists

Stressors, be they physical or spiritual, are often incited as causative factors in a variety of illnesses, including cancer. The effect of those stressors on our physiology can be passed on to our children, as studies of holocaust survivors have found. The integrated stress response (ISR) is a signaling network that bridges those stressors and the physiologic reactions within our cells. How can chemicals remember?

Shinrin-yoku, also known as a "forest bath," originated in Japan and it's believed to enhance one’s well-being while helping “connect” with nature. It involves immersing oneself in a forest or natural environment and mindfully engaging with the surroundings through the senses. Western medicine offers “nature prescriptions” – the walk with or without the mindfulness. Does it improve our health?

The creation of sperm in mammals, known as spermatogenesis, is critically impacted by temperature. A very small increase results in a significant reduction in the little swimmers. Peto’s paradox points out that larger animals with more cells – and, therefore, a greater risk of mutation – have less chance of cancer than smaller animals. A new hypothesis connects these two seemingly unrelated dots.

The Golden State instituted a program to reduce carbon emissions to 40% below 1990 levels (the cap), by providing carbon credits to account for those excess carbon emissions (the trade). Economists worried that the job loss associated with industries with excess carbon emissions would not be offset by increasing jobs in “green” industries. A new study reports mixed results.

I’ve been visiting doctors lately, and my blood pressure has been recorded many times. Some days it is 140/80; other days, it is 200/110. Why could that be? And what does it tell us about healthcare and BIG DATA?

As fewer individuals pick up cigarettes, more are picking up vape cartridges. Over time, some smokers move on to vaping, while some vapers move on to smoking; the gate swings in both directions. Does perhaps the gate swing more one way or another? Authors of a new study offer what they've learned.

Oppenheimer and the “Gita”
Releasing the nukes
Where have all the Dinosaurs gone?
The return of the paper bag

An allergy to the sugar galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose “alpha-gal” – which causes an allergy to red meat and is spread by a tick – has “climbed 41%” over four years. To add to our fears, the media reported, “42% of health care providers didn’t know about the syndrome, and another 35% weren’t too confident about how to diagnose and treat it.” Is the meat apocalypse upon us? Have the cows found a way to make us eat less of them and more vegetables?

COVID-19, a respiratory virus, often begins in viruses trapped in our nose and upper respiratory tracts. While universal precautions in healthcare settings require frequent handwashing, enforcing that requirement is lax, and compliance is often low. A new study reports on rhinotillexis, the act of “extracting nasal mucus with one’s finger,” and subsequent mucophagy, the ingestion of said mucus, among healthcare workers in the Netherlands.   

"The United States needs resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure our economic prosperity and national security.” – Executive Order #14017
“The pandemic and recent supply chain disruptions have revealed the perils of a national food system that depends on capacity concentrated in a few geographic areas and requires many steps to get from farm to fork. In order to be more resilient, the food system of the future needs to be more distributed and local.” – the USDA response.

It is seemingly such an easy question: if I need an ambulance, what will it cost me? Unfortunately, there's only a complex answer, summarized as “it depends.”

Shionogi just purchased Qpex. When I inquired about this, the Qpex folks told me that Shionogi is a company truly committed to the antibiotics space. What I found was truly inspiring! This is a real feel-good story! How often does that happen for antibiotics?