Author: Lance Garrison
Germs are all around us. You might be surprised – if not grossed out – at the places and things that are the germiest, though. Still, there’s a practical way to deal with these microbe multipliers: Ask yourself what a germ would do.“You have to think like a germ,” says Patricia Stinchfield, RN, MS, CPNP, a pediatric nurse practitioner in St. Paul, MN. She specializes in vaccines and infection prevention and control and serves as president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “How does a germ like to spread? Then you have to make a barrier between it and…
Plagiarism is perhaps the mildest academic sin, as well as the easiest to detect. There are innumerable cases of more serious forms of misconduct — such as the falsification and fabrication of data — that have stained the reputations of universities all over the world. If academia really wants to tackle the problem, it’s got to rethink the way it judges and rewards research — and tell good from bad.In Claudine Gay’s case, the plagiarism — and I think it qualifies as plagiarism — seems a venial sin rather than a mortal one. Yes, her doctoral dissertation and several of…
When COVID-19 arrived, we took measures to slow the disease – social distancing, wearing masks, and washing our hands more. These steps also helped curb colds, the flu, and asthma attacks in kids triggered by respiratory viruses.Now the global health emergency is officially ended, and health care providers are gearing up for more flu activity. “The 2023-2024 influenza season in the United States may result in more cases of the flu than average, if the upcoming U.S. flu season mirrors the current influenza season in Australia,” says Wheaton Williams, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory,…
Claudine Gay’s resignation this week as Harvard University’s president marks the end of a shameful chapter for the institution. The debacle’s architects promise to make America’s elite institutions great again. They say they pushed out Dr. Gay and, nearly a month ago, the University of Pennsylvania’s president as a warning to the nation’s cultural institutions. How they will continue to wield their influence and if they will succeed depends on how willing we all are to keep buying age-old ideas about merit from power-hungry peddlers.Dr. Gay’s resignation comes nearly a month after the presidents of M.I.T., Harvard and the University…
You might think of mucus – the runny, goopy, or gummy stuff you sneeze out, sniff in, and cough up – as something pesky you never seem to have a tissue for. It might not be sexy, but mucus is one of your body’s biggest defenders.This slippery, sometimes sticky fluid comes from the mucus membranes that line your respiratory tract – your nose, mouth, larynx, trachea, and lungs. Mucus provides moisture for the air we breathe and lubricates your respiratory tract. “Mucus serves a protective function in capturing debris, allergens, dust, and pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, which can…
To the Editor:Re “Seeing Threat to Democracy, With Trump on Ballot or Not” (front page, Dec. 31):The argument by Republicans like J.D. Vance and Chris Christie and Democrats like Gavin Newsom that removing Donald Trump from the ballot would be anti-democratic and would deprive voters of the right to choose their president is flawed in two respects.First, the 14th Amendment — like the rest of the Constitution — was adopted through a democratic process. It is no more anti-democratic to deny Mr. Trump a place on the ballot because he engaged in insurrection than it is to disqualify a 34-year-old…
Photo Credit: diovp / Getty ImagesSOURCES:Arti Madhavan, MD, specialist-in-chief of family medicine, Detroit Medical Center.Luci Leykum, MD, chief clinical officer, Harbor Health, Austin, TX.Frontiers in Medicine: “COVID-19 and Influenza Co-infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”Cell Research: “Coinfection with influenza A virus enhances SARS-CoV-2 infectivity.”CDC: “COVID-19: What To Do If You Are Sick,” “Flu: What To Do If You Get Sick,” “COVID-19 Treatments and Medications,” “Factors That Affect Your Risk of Getting Very Sick from COVID-19,” “Pregnant and Recently Pregnant People,” “Changes in Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus Activity During the COVID-19 Pandemic – United States, 2020-2021,” “People With Moderate to Severe Asthma,”…
Let’s face it: Kids are microbe magnets. They also like to share. These tiny humans don’t enter the world knowing that spraying a sneeze into your face or wiping their runny noses and then putting their grubby little hands into their mouths are a big “No-no.” But they can learn from you. “Kids mirror the behavior they see from the adults in their lives,” says Amy Edwards, MD, a pediatric infectious disease expert at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH.That means it’s up to you to help kids learn that even though sharing is caring, nobody…
The COVID-19 global health emergency has officially ended, but flu season will still show up around October as always. If you had vaccinations and boosters during the pandemic, you might be a bit sick of shots, though. Do you really need a flu shot?“I think we’re all weary of vaccines and injections,” says Patricia Stinchfield, RN, MS, CPNP, a pediatric nurse practitioner in St. Paul, MN, who specializes in vaccines and infection prevention and control. She’s also president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. However, the COVID-19 vaccine won’t stop you from getting the flu. “It’s very good wishful…
At the Republican National Convention in 2016, after Mr. Trump had captured the nomination, David Clarke, the Black sheriff of Milwaukee County, stood before the crowd, wearing a thin blue line flag pin on his uniform, and railed against the “anarchy” of the Black Lives Matter movement and the “collapse of social order.”By the time Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign rolled around, the Black Lives Matter movement was resurgent in the wake of the death of George Floyd, given fresh urgency by the Trump presidency and a harder edge by the dislocation caused by Covid. The Trump campaign cast the…