Thoughts of a retired physician

  For the next current events session here at MonteCedro, the group wanted to discuss pandemic preparedness. Since both Margan and I are infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists who were involved in preparedness planning for many years in both military and civilian organizations, this will probably be fairly easy. I thought it might be useful to write a little about how this important topic came to be and, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, what went wrong. Pandemics are a relatively recent problem. In human history, only in the last 10,000 years have we had the conjunction of agriculture, which fostered larger populations of more sedentary humans, along with constant contact with domesticated animals, whose microorganisms we came to share in a variety of ways. Tuberculosis and measles originated in bovine animals. Influenza is primarily a disease of fowl and pigs. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) arose in nonhuman primates in Africa and likely spread to humans through c

  In December 2020, the FDA issued emergency use authorization for two unique mRNA vaccines to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Both the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine and the Moderna-NIH vaccine were spectacularly successful in large Phase 3 clinical trials in preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death from Covid-19. Furthermore, the safety profile of both vaccines was impressive. This was tremendously good news. Even so, negative press about these vaccines soon followed and unfortunately continues to this day.  In the United Kingdom, which began vaccinating before the U.S., there were several early reports of anaphylactoid reactions . Soon after vaccinations began in the U.S., similar reports occurred. CDC looked at these and found a rate of 11.1 cases of anaphylaxis (none fatal) per 1 million first doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Anaphylaxis is reported with many other vaccines and usually occurs within 30 minutes of receipt of the vaccine. It is treatable with epinephrine. Th

  After the presentation of overwhelming evidence of Donald Trump’s incitement of a mob that invaded the Capitol, sought to harm or kill elected officials, and wanted to overthrow the U.S. government, 43 Republican Senators decided that their political party and continuing power was more important than their country, the Constitution, and the oath they swore to defend that Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Trump is a domestic enemy. Shame on them and may they be damned forevermore as the traitors they are.

  Vaccines to prevent disease from SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19, are being administered at a slow but increasing pace in the United States. As of 6 February, over 59 million doses of vaccine have been distributed and about 66%, a little over 39 million of that number, have been administered. The trendline for vaccine administration remains rising and the 6th of February marked the first day that more than 2 million doses were administered. Because the approach taken by the Trump administration regarding vaccination ended with delivery of vaccine to each state, the struggle for the almost 2 months of how to get vaccine into arms has fallen to local and state governments which were already severely impacted by the pandemic. While we are doing better than at  the start, we need faster administration into the arms of people to protect them and blunt Covid-19 transmission. Joe Biden’s administration hit the ground running on January 20th. His Covid Response Team worked for months to

  In truth, I am not really in the mood to write much. That said, an experience this week is probably worth relating. If you got this link it is probably off my Facebook page or my Twitter feed. I subscribed to both about ten years ago with the hope of keeping up with family and friends. I need to tell you a story about a friend. The friend in question is a medical school classmate. I have known this person for 50+ years. Over time, on Facebook, our political differences came out. I am liberal; this person is conservative. I am an atheist; this person is religious. In the era of the Trump administration, we exchanged posts and replies disagreeing with each other. We always came back to an equilibrium that acknowledged having met each other in our youth while attending medical school. This was disrupted by the seditious behavior of Trump, the Republican Party, and the MAGA cult that the Republicans have become enthralled to. We all went through the Big Lie put out by Trump and echoed by

  I have been impressed by what a competent President, backed by a competent team, can do in a few short days. The political winds continue to blow in Washington with confirmation of Cabinet secretaries and other essential personnel, fallout from the failed insurrection of January 6th, pushback from Republicans on the relief package for Covid-induced economic woes, and the curious musings of Representative McCarthy (R-Gaslighting) that we all are to blame for what happened when the U.S. Capitol was invaded. Oh, there is an impeachment trial too. But President Biden and his team have begun to tackle what has consumed us in 2020: a pandemic of coronavirus with still untold consequences. The full plan is both wide in scope and detailed ; it is the work of months by experts in many fields. My wife and I have been giving updates on the pandemic since its start in our community. This will definitely be part of our next talk this week. We have been following the creation, testing, and now

  It has been 10 days since a seditious conspiracy attempted to overthrow Congress and prevent the Constitutionally mandated requirement for Congress to count the Electoral votes for President. From the Ellipse where a mob formed listening to incitement from Donald John Trump and his minions, to the Capitol Grounds , and into the halls of Congress , we were witness to the closest our democracy has come to being toppled since 1861 . We are 4 days from inaugurating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Washington has become a locked-down fortress with 10,000 National Guardsmen currently deployed, likely to be 25,000 by Inauguration Day . To say this is a national embarrassment is trivializing the issue. As a nation, we should be ashamed and enraged that Trump’s cult has brought us to this. It is fair to say that the perpetrators of this travesty, from Trump on down to the least of his cult at the Capitol, all bear a heavy responsibility. One amazing thing is that all of them were recorded in