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Ah, for the old times, when our biggest fear was seasonal flu. Roughly 80% of healthcare workers get vaccinated, more the docs and nurses, less the aides. Where it is required, the vaccination rate rises to 90%. [1] Those not getting vaccinated are doing harm, as a new study shows.

I have been reading at the intersection of COVID and monopolies, COVID and modeling, COVID and our bureaucracy. For those who have been vaccinated once, the second dose may allow you to experience for a day or two, first hand, the power of our immune systems.

While we lament the lack of cooperation in Western culture that allows a virus to spread, we can simultaneously celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit that allows a cure to be discovered.

Millions of families around the world are separated due to COVID travel restrictions. These people are left to suffer in isolation, consoled only by the platitude that the benefits of strict lockdowns outweigh the cost of emotional pain and psychological torture.

Among the unpleasant effects of COVID is a whopping portion of aches and pains. Whether there is anything you can take to feel better -- for example, Advil -- is not clear. But two, large retrospective studies seem to give the thumbs-up to NSAIDs.

A statistical test suggests that several countries are misreporting or fabricating COVID case numbers. The United States is included among those countries. Is there another explanation?

As the EU reverses its plans to restrict the exportation of vaccines from Ireland to the UK and in the wake of stinging criticism that wealthy countries should not be monopolizing the vaccine supply, the Biden administration says it will participate in WHO’s global COVID-19 vaccine-sharing project, reversing Donald Trump’s America First approach.

India’s population is 1.4 billion, four times greater than in the United States. Yet we have 26 million cases of COVID-19, while they have 10.8 million. As for fatalities, India is closing in on 160,000 through Feb. 4, while the U.S. has recorded 455,000 – nearly three times as many. Further, U.S. healthcare is generally believed to be better than India's. So what’s going on here? More importantly, what can we learn?

Over this six-part series, I have demonstrated that purported organics are neither safer, healthier, tastier, or better for the environment. It is time to consider whether that organic label is trustworthy.

Our first two vaccines have greater than 90% efficacy; Novavax reports 89.3%, Johnson and Johnson’s reports 66%. Should we care? What do those numbers mean to you and me when we worry about the protection the vaccine affords us?

This week things are looking up, just not as much as we might like. We’re vaccinating more than a million people a day, but we continue to be plagued by operational problems that prevent scaling up immunization rates at a quicker pace. What does the data tell us?

If you don't learn anything from this pharmacology lesson, at least remember this one thing: Call your doctor if your erection lasts longer than 4 hours. Seriously.

IV Tylenol is commonly used to control pain following surgery. But, should it be? A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial – the gold standard – of patients who underwent abdominal surgery gave us a very clear answer. Take a wild guess.

Obesity remains a health problem for individuals, and collectively as a public health issue. The war against obesity, like that against drugs, has been waged for many years without significant change. A new study looks at why policy has so little effect.

RFK, Jr., who blamed the COVID vaccine for causing the death of baseball legend Hank Aaron, continues to spread deadly anti-vaccine nonsense on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The companies' claims that they're trying to clean up disinformation ring hollow.

Identifying the rioters at the Capital demonstrates the end of privacy, the bad-boys of healthcare 2020, the natural and un-natural in medicine, and an example of "misinformation" spread not on social media, but by a beetle.

The data suggest that Washington is doing better than Idaho at reducing COVID sicknesses and deaths. However, the data also suggest that massive restrictions aren't necessary to get COVID under control. It's time for Washington to start opening up.

While much has been written about prioritizing individual vaccine allocation by the states (mainly on ethical principles or economic grounds), far less attention has been paid to prioritizing vaccine allocation to the states and foreign nations. And not surprisingly, we see efforts made at all levels trying to cut ahead in line or manipulate the system.

There's growing evidence that B.1.1.7, a variant of concern, or VOC, is more infectious than the garden variety COVID-19. What's been missing is data on whether it's more aggressive and lethal. Media reporting says it “may be 30% more lethal.” Of course, a lot depends on what "may" means.

If the media was doing its job instead of providing free marketing and public relations to the renewable energy industry, it would have reported that Europe's energy transition has come at great cost because of massive subsidies, higher taxes, and poor decisions.

Whatever you might think of our educational system, there can be no doubt that almost a year of remote “learning” will turn out to be disastrous. That's especially true for those already educationally disadvantaged. The science increasingly says that schools, especially elementary schools, are not superspreader sites. Are we willing to follow the science?

A weekly look at how the national and global vaccination programs are going. We're improving at getting vaccines into arms, but not improving as quickly as we should.

It would have been impossible to predict the efficiency of the COVID vaccination program at the newly-opened Fort Washington Armory location. It was amazing. Including the seat wiper.

Some ingenious pharmacists have figured out how to get a sixth dose out of the "fill" in Pfizer's vaccine. Pfizer wants those magically-found "extra doses" counted towards its commitment to the U.S. government. And the company wants to be paid for what it's providing.

Fear sells, which is why news outlets provide so much of it. But constant bad news is bad for our health. Turn off the TV and social media.