A health and public policy blog
In 2021 the Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized abortions. Now many in the US have started talking about abortions in Mexico for some Americans should Roe v. Wade be overturned. In Chile abortion Read More…
As humans, our first line of defense against viral pathogens is the innate immune response. That includes things like the skin, cytokines, and macrophages. This response tries to hold the line till tRead More…
It is more than 18 months since the first case of SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed in the US. Most of us hoped for a vaccine which we believed will end the pandemic. Today we have several vaccineRead More…
Vaccine implementation across the country is giving way to easing of social distancing restrictions. With successful vaccine deployment many are getting ready to transition back to a physical work enRead More…
In the past months with Covid-19 vaccines available in many countries, implementation programs are rolling out across the globe. The effectiveness of such programs is very important in curbing furtheRead More…
In the past one year we have lost more than half a million Americans to Covid-19. My worst estimate in March 2020 was a quarter of a million in a year. At that time I was very confident we would not Read More…
Over the years the United States has been a country known for racially motivated violence. This issue has moved into the forefront of the political discourse in the past few years. In 2020 George FloRead More…
As America continues to roll out vaccines across the country many questions are coming up. With the limited experience with our current vaccines some of these questions do not have easy answers. OneRead More…
As at January 10th, 2021 the death toll from Covid-19 was about 1.9 million globally and 372,522 in the United States. This is almost as many Americans as died in World War II. In the past week we haRead More…
US Response To Vaccine Implementation As public health authorities in the US roll out the Covid-19 vaccination program many issues beyond immunization logistics are beginning to surface. A receRead More…
Covid-19 What’s going on in the World: 81,126,416 cases worldwide since the start of the epidemic, with 1,771,407 deaths. It is likely we will, despite starting vaccinations, see another increaRead More…
About a year ago our world was upended when it became clear the respiratory virus spreading through China was not going to be contained locally. China dragged its feet trying to figure out how to hanRead More…
The Boston Smallpox Epidemic For many centuries’ smallpox was the scourge of humanity. It decimated human populations and in the New World wreaked havoc among Native Americans with the influx oRead More…
After almost 10 months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel. There are several SARS-CoV-2 vaccines on the horizon, with two approaching FDA approval. As Read More…
Dialysis patients are a group with several risk factors ( advanced age, non-white race, poverty, and diabetes) for contracting SARS-CoV-2 and developing sever COVID-19. Therefore, they form a good grRead More…
This evening, like a lot of evenings, I sat down to write. Today, I could not. I was overcome with a deep sadness for my adopted home, the USA, and the way she is being devastated by COVID-19. TheRead More…
I have realised that anytime BLM and protesters react to police brutality, detractors always point to various “whataboutisms”. Many would ask “what about black on black crime.?” “What aboutRead More…
As a surgeon who has been working in the US healthcare system for the last twenty years. I never imagined I would ever see what has transpired in the first quarter of the year 2020. Never in my wildeRead More…
For many years I have lamented the lack of trained health workers in Ghana to treat precancerous lesions of the cervix. A handful of gynecologists in Ghana are equipped with the skill to treat precanRead More…
Racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare has always been a feature of the American health system. This is an issue that all minorities in the healthcare field address in their own way. Some get emRead 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…
Lock down ends. The streets are already beginning to fill again. There is a new item of color on the landscape of faces now: masks. I am learning to recognize people by the pattern on the masks they Read 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…
Lock down begins. I thought, going to work that I would see a ghost town. I did not. The traffic has definitely reduced, but there are still people on the streets. The shops are closed, or closing. TRead More…