7/30/2020
Things you should think about when you hear “vaccine by end of the year”
On July 27, 2020, the Washington Post reported, Two coronavirus vaccines begin the last phase of testing: 30,000-person trials, wrapping it in historical terms: At 6:45 a.m. Monday, a volunteer in Savannah, Ga., received a shot in the arm and became the first participant in a massive human experiment that will test the effectiveness of an experimental […]
7/28/2020
What you need to know about the Alzheimer’s test news
For years, substances called tau protein or beta-amyloid have been theorized to be signs or causes of Alzheimer’s disease. There have been many reports of tests and treatments based on theories that tau and/or amyloid are at least signs, if not causes, of Alzheimer’s. Scientific uncertainty remains about the precise role of tau and amyloid […]
7/24/2020
HealthNewsReview.org in the news about COVID-19
I’ve been asked to do more interviews in the past six months than in any recent comparable time span. COVID-19 is almost always the reason for the requests. Some of the more recent requests were spawned by the JAMA Viewpoint article, Communicating Science in the Time of a Pandemic, that I co-authored with Richard Saitz, MD, […]
7/21/2020
One day of COVID-19 drug & vaccine news provides cautious reminders
Before I even turned on my computer yesterday, the BBC had blared this headline about a trial of the protein interferon beta:The sub-headline read: The preliminary results of a clinical trial suggest a new treatment for Covid-19 reduces the number of patients needing intensive care, according to the UK company that developed it. Eventually some […]
7/21/2020
JAMA: Communicating Science in the Time of a Pandemic
Dr. Richard Saitz of Boston University School of Public Health and I co-authored this piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Here is an excerpt:
7/17/2020
Criticism of NY Times’ Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker
Yesterday on Twitter, several clinician-researchers urged me to weigh in on the New York Times’ introduction of a new Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker. They were troubled by it. I was, too, when I saw it. But I had no time to address it yesterday and – more than 24 hours later – I still […]
7/13/2020
Why make international news out of 9 vague patient reports on remdesivir?
The Reuters headline blared, “One in three South Korean COVID-19 patients improve with remdesivir.” The first sentence of the story repeated that number: “One in three South Korean patients seriously ill with COVID-19 showed an improvement in their condition after being given Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral remdesivir, health authorities said.” One in three. Was that 1,000 […]
7/3/2020
Some global reaction to the news of US mass purchase of remdesivir
Canadian physician-researcher James Brophy of McGill University read the news announcing, “US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir.” Rather than reacting with shock and scorn as many observers did, Brophy celebrated the announcement as “good news for the rest of us” around the globe. Why? He explained in an opinion piece published […]
6/30/2020
For breakfast, give me 2 observational studies and an anti-irritant
This is the way many of my days begin. I check for messages – across all media – and I see this on Twitter from Adam Cifu, MD, one of our former editorial contributors: I think this article was published just to irritate @VPrasadMDMPH and @garyschwitzer https://t.co/KWVqMEk3K8 — Adam Cifu (@adamcifu) June 30, 2020 Once […]
6/17/2020
Pharma PR appears as unvetted COVID-19 vaccine news in STAT newsletter
I’ve written about STAT’s Morning Rounds newsletter in the past, and criticized how STAT accepts pharma sponsorship of the newsletter. In the last two weeks, for example, the newsletter has featured sponsored content from: drug company AstraZeneca; the Biotechnology Innovation Organization – whose biggest sponsors include drug companies Lilly, Merck, Amgen, Johnson & Johnson; biotech […]
