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The study by Agepha Pharma used by the FDA in its approval of this new indication for use ultimately involved 5478 patients between the ages of 35 and 82 with evidence of coronary artery disease upon imaging [1] and had been clinically stable for six months before enrollment. A larger cohort of 6528 patients was initially included and underwent a one-month open-label use of colchicine. Those who were not compliant, clinically unstable, or had “unacceptable” side effects from the colchicine were removed. [2] Patients were randomized to treatment with 0.5 mg of colchicine daily or placebo.

85% of patients had a history of an acute coronary event, severe chest pain, or myocardial infarction, two-thirds of which were more than two years previously. Mean age was 66, predominantly a...

About two months ago, when Pfizer's Paxlovid (1) was first distributed to a very select group of pharmacies throughout the US, you pretty much had to know the Pope (and perhaps his pharmacist) to get your hands the drug. As I wrote in early February, you had about as much of a chance of finding a $20 gold piece on the sidewalk as locating a pharmacy that had the stuff in stock.

 (Left) January 17th, the availability of molnupiravir (1,890 courses) and Paxlovid  (zero courses - the 2 isn't real) on Long...

1. A feeble attempt at grammar

Let's start with a segue at the beginning of an article. This may be technically impossible; I just don't know. Strunk and White have nothing to say about this, which is unlikely to change since they are both dead.

Here we go----> Speaking of nuts (1), Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving scored a ridiculous 60 points against Orlando the other night. In the unlikely event that he keeps up the pace, he will be averaging...30 (2) points per game. Why the discrepancy? New York City's idiotic policy bans non-vaccinated athletes from playing in the city. So when the Nets play in Brooklyn (or Madison Square Garden) Irving, who refuses to be vaccinated, sits.

2. Why?...

Are you still afraid of COVID-19? Perhaps it's the prospect of an escalating conflict in Ukraine that has you worried. Forget all that. The real threat to your health might be the IPA or glass of wine you had with dinner last night. That's because, according to a study recently published in Nature Communications, even moderate alcohol intake may harm your brain. The hipster-oriented “I F****** Love Science”—get it? Edgy because of the profanity—put it this way:

Bad news for casual drinkers – just one to two alcohol units a day results in lower brain volume, only getting worse as...

It's not totally absurd to compare our war against COVID with a boxing match. The virus clearly won Round 1; aside from masks and isolation, we were pretty much defenseless. Round 2 unanimously went to science; the vaccines worked very well, and perhaps we were on the cusp of ending the pandemic.

But it wasn't a knockout; the virus was saved by the bell.

Round 3 is harder to score. Although there is clear evidence that hospitalizations and deaths are mostly confined to the unvaccinated, no one expected the one-two punch of delta and omicron, once again sending the world into a panic, with lockdowns, mask mandates, and quarantines, none of which anyone was in the mood for. 

Round 4 started today, with the FDA granting Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to Pfizer's...

Post-COVID-19, the once-ferocious debate surrounding genetically engineered (GE) crops seems like a fading memory, especially with the anti-GMO movement rapidly losing its cultural and political influence. The organizations that once propped up this technophobic campaign have either hitched their agenda to the pandemic in a bid to remain relevant or just given up on crop biotech opposition altogether. 

While we should celebrate the anti-GMO movement's disintegration, we need to recognize that countries around the world continue to forgo the benefits of crop biotechnology because they took activist groups like...

Before jumping into the study, we need to understand how elevated cholesterol causes cardiovascular problems. If the truth is told, sharing this information was one of the reasons I chose the study to share.

Atherosclerosis

We’ll begin with the main characters in our story, the wall of the arteries and cholesterol. The arterial wall consists of three layers: the innermost, intima, which helps regulate the interaction between elements in the bloodstream. A middle layer, the media, consists of smooth muscle that constricts or dilates the artery and a tough outer layer, the adventitia, that holds it all together. [1]

Cholesterol is not always a villain; it is a bit misunderstood. It is the basis for steroid and sex hormones and Vitamin D. It is a...

Once a cultural and political force to be reckoned with, the anti-GMO movement has lost control of the crop biotechnology narrative. Countries around the world continue to abandon their opposition to genetically engineered (GE) crops, including the UK, previously an activist stronghold as part of the EU. High-profile environmental groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Sierra Club have...

The headline comes from a report based upon the latest CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, specifically on an outbreak of the Delta variant in a federal prison in Texas in August. There was an initial outbreak of 18 cases in two interconnected prison units, which houses 233 people. Once recognized, direct contacts were quarantined and the infected isolated. When all was said and done, 74% of the inmates were infected (based upon rapid and PCR testing). Here are the most reported facts:

  • 93% of the unvaccinated (39 of 42) were infected. 70% of the vaccinated (129...

Teenagers have no business using electronic cigarettes. Public health officials, scientists and even companies that manufacturer and sell e-cigarettes should do all they can to prevent teen vaping. 

That said, there's a point at which judicious public health advocacy devolves into ideological activism that actually does more harm than good. We saw an example of this devolution in North Carolina recently, where the vaping company JUUL agreed to pay $40 million over six years to settle a lawsuit alleging it deliberately marketed its e-cigarettes to underage customers. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein summed up the case against JUUL for CNN in May 2019:

'My...