Category: COVID

Why is the world’s first universal coronavirus vaccine not in the FDA’s toolbox?

Success in any project is based on using the right tool for the job. No tool would be more effective in the campaign against COVID than Covaxin, which has shown its value in India and other markets during recent months.  While mRNA vaccines were a prom…

An update on COVID’s long tail

What’s the problem? Anthony Fauci, MD, has said: “Virtually everybody is going to wind up getting exposed and likely get infected.” There’s one reason to avoid this scenario: long COVID. If Omicron is sooner or later going to in…

Reflections of a critical care doctor after 2 years of COVID

COVID has been with us for two years. I have written my reflection during the pandemic periodically to vent, share and disseminate information. But I have felt at a loss for words in the last few months. I am exhausted, emotionally drained and bereft. …

COVID is not always mild in kids

Can we agree to abandon the notion that COVID in children is “mild?” At least, as a medical community? We are taught to look at the data and guide our patients based on evidence. And the fact is, in a single week in January 2022, nearly 1 million pedia…

The CDC’s continuing failures: Is there a way out?

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is in the eye of a storm after a controversial new guideline from CDC regarding the isolation of COVID-19 patients. The recent CDC directive suggested that everyone stay ho…

What really happens when the unvaccinated get sick with COVID

“My body, my rights.” “My body is a temple.” “I don’t want poison going into my body.” ” I’ve done my research.” And they refuse to wear masks; they refuse to social distance. They refuse COVI…

What does it even mean to work through the unimaginable?

When the Delta variant hit Mississippi, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published alarming statistics for maternal and perinatal deaths. Pregnant women were dying at three times the pre-COVID baseline rate. These young, healthy women w…

Inside the race to conquer the COVID-19 pandemic

An excerpt from The Vaccine: Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 Pandemic. Copyright © 2022 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group. For the first time in weeks, Uğur Şahin’s calendar was clear. It was a Friday mo…

Changing the game plan: COVID’s second half

Recently, I was on several calls concerning the precipitous rise of COVID-19 cases and the burden to the health care system. There’s no doubt that we are at a point where challenges become crisis, and crisis becomes collapse. The constant influx …

Here’s what it takes to do good science under pressure

How can you know that science done quickly during a crisis is good science? This question has taken on new relevance with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Researchers developed vaccines in under a year — easily breaking the previous record of four years. …