rjs at r.j.’s space sent this pice as written by MD Jeremy Faust. Apparently’ the CDC is going to restrict the use of certain words in research manuscripts. Gender, transgender, etc. appears to be the forbidden words as well as non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, etc. This was also done […]

Personally, I’ve never had a weight problem. Always had a BMI under 24. But I’ve known plenty of people who were overweight or obese. For the ones who started taking semaglutides, the results have been transformative and the risks for most have been negligible. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s Dr. McGowan, a […]

Don Boudreaux has reprinted a few paragraphs from a George Will column under the heading:  George Will explains that RFK, Jr., is what people get “when trust in government collapses.”  Here are the quoted paragraphs, my bold: Indifference to evidence, and an appetite for startling hypotheses, are well-known characteristics of cranks. Kennedy is a man-child […]

Pulled up from a comment by Linda Eissenberg the community has been exploring them [CAR crazy ideas] for some time.  For example, in the “Gene edited CAR-T” method section of this paper (Cooper, et al.  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6102094/), T cells were treated with IL2 and IL15 before putting the CAR gene into the T cells.  This work was […]

I graduated college in 1977 with a BA (with honors) in microbiology. I took courses in virology and immunology, among others. Thus, as a 22 year-old, I was already more qualified to discuss vaccines against polio and COVID than RFK Jr is or will ever be. He’s not the only clown in the Trump clown […]

Matt Yglesias has a critical piece up on Biden.  I am largely in agreement with Yglesias’ take, although I tend to see his failings as due to longstanding character traits, while Yglesias puts more emphasis on Biden’s age.  A couple of snippets (the whole thing is worth reading, but not sure if it is public): […]

Here CAR stands for Chimeric Antigen Receptor and refers to CAR killer T-cells which are cells genetically engineered to kill other cells which display something detectable (and antigen) typical of a type of cancer. The crazy refers to my dream of improving CARs using the knowlsege from my long ago BA in biology. The amazing […]

The US has been an international leader in biomedical research for decades. Now, the Trump administration wants to blow that up. “The directive also brings the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) lengthy scientific grant review process to a standstill. “All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities,” […]

As I’ve said here before, together with water purification and sanitary sewers, vaccines are a triumph of public health. Hundreds of millions of lived (at least) have been saved by vaccination, not just as a direct result of immunization but indirectly by slowing the rate of pathogen evolution. It is both shocking and frankly dangerous […]

“California is advising healthcare providers not to write down patients’ immigration status on bills and medical records and telling them they don’t have to assist federal agents in arrests. Some Massachusetts hospitals and clinics are posting privacy rights in emergency and waiting rooms in Spanish and other languages. “Meanwhile, Florida and Texas are requiring healthcare […]