A health and public policy blog
It is 18 months since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic. The global deaths now is 8467, more than what was reported in the worst days of April and May 2020. The geoRead More…
On January 6th, 2021 a mob of mostly white Americans stormed the US Capitol attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. These individuals sought to prevent the certification of the results and Read More…
So what drove the ascent of Donald J. Trump? I have teased out six main reasons why some 63 million Americans voted for him in 2016. Approximately 70 million did this time around. Despite every failiRead More…
My five year old son has a mortal fear of spiders and has elected me as the spider assassin-in-chief. I have however failed terribly in this assigned duty. Our conversation on this problem usually gRead More…
Have you ever wondered why there are so many Civil Rights Acts in the United States? There is the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (CRA) then there is CRA 1870 and 1871! Subsequent acts were passed in 1875, Read More…
As we get closer to November 3rd I keep looking at the steady approval of Trump’s handling of the economy. Over the course of his first year Trumps approval for his handling of the US economy has nevRead More…
Columbus was definitely a man of vision and courage. He sought to prove Galileo’s theory of a round earth by sailing west to get to the Far East. This venture led to his most memorable life achievemeRead More…
Since the Obama presidency US conservatives have become more concerned about the country’s demographic trends. Many of these individuals have a nolstagic attachment to a way of life which albeit aRead More…
Many of us consider the United States as a fairly advanced country with a stable legislative system. The truth however falls very far from that accepted belief. A legislature with a 244 year history Read More…
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg!What a life! What a woman! What a lawyer and judge! What a legacy! In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion in “United States v. Virginia”. The all-male admissions pRead More…
My father died in 2014. Without a will! That was a remarkable thing for a well-educated man who always threatened us in childhood that for playing the fool, he was going to take us out of his will! TRead More…
One of my favorite Presidents once said “A president’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right” Lyndon Baines Johnson. Born in Ghana in the 1970s one may wonder how I know Read More…
In 1619 a Dutch sheep landed in the Virginia colonies with 20 Africans captured from Angola. This was the first recorded shipment of slaves to any of the lands constituting present day USA. This howeRead More…
Many countries have seen their peak in cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the rear view mirror. Unfortunately the United States is still forging ahead in this epidemic. I wrote a previous post about preparing fRead More…
As a boy I always had a fascination with cultures other than my own. This was a curiosity that sought to understand what these cultures believed and how these beliefs had developed. I remember my graRead More…
Growing up on the coast meant that I always wondered about the sea. Driving by the beach and seeing the waves beating on the shores was always a joy to behold. Up to today watching and listening to tRead More…
Dr. Anthony Fauci said this, “Anything could, but I must say that the degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this virus is really unprecedented in anything that I’ve seen. It’s an extraordinRead More…
In the early 1990s, HIV spread like wildfire in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shaanxi, and Shanxi. Between 200,000 and 300,000 were infected because of the trade in blood and blood prRead More…
Social distancing & Abortion Restrictions With roll out of social distancing rules across the country some states are facing problems likely created by anti-reproductive choice activists. ThiRead More…
There have been multiple Coronavirus outbreaks in the pasts, SARS-CoV-1 was first reported in Asia in February 2003, though cases subsequently were tracked to late 2002. This virus quickly spread to Read More…
There are certain lessons in life that are difficult to forget. Unfortunately, some of these lessons are very costly, and in the medical field the costs is usually counted in human lives. I still remRead More…
There are subjects you study in med school that are meant as instruments of torture. One of these is “Embryology” – the study of how the fetus forms from the fusion of the female egg and the maleRead More…
When it comes to infectious diseases national boundaries have never been a useful means of control. This is one very important reason why the World Health Organization (WHO) is so important. There isRead More…
I passed by those ambulances on a daily basis. Lined up in neat rows on the parking lots of power. The controversy swirled around them. The need beckoned. The death data swelled. And still they sat, wRead More…
In my early days as a physician in Baltimore city I worked briefly with Healthcare for the Homeless and had many patients who were homeless. One thing that I learned was that the homeless in America hRead More…