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…
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…
In the US and across the world things can appear very chaotic nowadays and many have expressed concern over the nature of the divisive political rhetoric in Washington. The attempts at impeachment of Read More…
In the last 2 decades most new jail and prison developments in the US a country with one of the highest prison populations in the world are in rural and suburban districts. Data reported by the LondonRead More…
Sometime in the 1990s a Harvard educated chemist funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse worked with his colleagues to synthesize compounds that could stimulate the endocannabinoid system. JohnRead More…
As a physician taking care of a largely HIV positive population in Baltimore, Maryland in the early 2010s, I was surprised to learn that many of my patients who were about my age or a few years older Read More…
This summer, on August 19th 2019 the Planned Parenthood Federation of America made a decision to withdraw from Title X funding. This program which is older than most of us was enacted by President RicRead More…
Emma Lazarus a poet and activist wrote the poem on the plaque of the Statue of Liberty. The words say;
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your pRead More…
Yesterday, a 20-year-old armed man gave Walmart shoppers in Springfield, MO a horrible scare. It is unclear what was his motive for walking into the Walmart around 4 pm yesterday dressed in combat fatRead More…
Last weekend, we had two mass shootings with a total death toll of 29. One of these shootings was in El Paso and is being judged a hate crime based on a manifesto posted by the shooter about 20 minuteRead More…
There is a certain reality that one must accept as a healthcare worker in Ghana. There are certain truths to be assumed. In our environment healthcare is a poorly managed space. It’s a Wild West on Read More…
“My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.”
– Bryan Stevenson from his book “Just Mercy”
By the time tRead More…
For many reasons I have my doubts that our current president considers the needs of people like me. This situation has been the source of significant degree of angst and discontent with the presidentRead More…
In 2002 a University of Colorado psychology Professor Joshua Correll undertook a study using a first person shooter video game. This was to study police officer decision making with regards to the usRead More…
I look at my life currently and proclaim that truly, America is the greatest country on Earth! I firmly believe my story is only possible in the United States of America! I also give due recognition tRead More…
Over the years widespread application of vaccines globally has led to significant reductions in the incidence of many vaccine preventable communicable diseases. One disease smallpox has been completeRead More…
These are the words of an anthropologist friend of mine – who has been traveling from Honduras with the caravan – regarding events at the Souther border over the weekend. No media news spin here: “TodRead More…
What if I told you I am afraid to attend church services in America today! With the Sutherland Springs and Charleston church massacres, I am now afraid of being shot in church, you would definitely sRead More…
As any self respecting Baltimore resident I sometimes see business deals in terms of street culture. I must admit though that I am no expert in street culture however a conversation that I had with aRead More…
Over the past two decades the United States has experienced an uncontrollable epidemic of drug related deaths. In 2016 sixty-three thousand Americans died of drug overdoses, two out of three of these Read More…
A recent WHO ranking of health systems puts the US at number 37 between Costa Rica and Slovenia. This is more surprising since US heath expenditure per capita is twice that of the number one country Read More…