If you’re like me you keep track. And you see something predictable and maddening. Each time we’re faced with the outbreak of a poorly understood or new virus ( H1N1, SARS, Zika, Ebola) you can count on trusted sources of information to be writing/speaking to anyone but the average public. Here’s the first descriptive information […]
This morning I wanted to check out an issue I’d come across in the news about Antarctic ice melting. So I googled the EPA + Climate Change. This is where I landed. How did I miss this! This site apparently has been under construction since April 2017! In a news release (4/28/17) EPA explains the […]
NIH’s new Herbal App – the reading level is fine. The health literacy it requires – its “health literacy load” is still high. Can you name how many domains of health literacy are required to understand the following? My list of some of the fundamental health and science literacies*embedded in the statements: Medical studies yield […]
On Jan 15 Aaron E Carroll (NYT, Section, The Upshot) wrote a good article about why the public should get vaccinated against flu – Still Not Convinced You Need a Flu Shot? First, It’s Not All About You. While urging the public to do so is a perenniel pursuit, Carroll focuses on the role of herd […]
You wake up this morning and you hear that there is a travel warning from the federal gov’t (CDC specifically) warning pregnant women “should not travel to this area.” Here’s just some of what you’re likely to hear from average folks today: WOW! Look at that. I wonder why the mosquitos picked that neighborhood? They […]
From the headline I was hopeful that the story would be touching on, if not outright discussing zoonosis. ( I’ve been writing about this for a while now). But… Even though Randy Olson, executive director of the Iowa PoultryAssociation calls the current Avian flu outbreak the “worst animal disease outbreak in Iowa’s history” his vision […]
Glyphosate (Roundupas we know it) is the most used herbicide in the world. In March 2015 the WHO (World Health Organization) released a report that listed glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” ……. READ MORE I’ve moved. I’m now blogging at my website: […]
People should get vaccinated against contagious diseases for their own safety AND because vaccination is a critical way to eliminate that disease from a population. These two facts are central to public health messaging. The first message is sort of simple “Get Vaccinated.” (Not saying that people’s responses to calls to vaccinate are not fraught.) Today I’m […]
I was reading a blog I always enjoy, Skeptical Raptor, a recent post, ” Debunking the vaccine denier myths of the Argument by Package Insert.” While I stumbled over the title a few times before I did realize it was critiquing a standard anti-vaccine argument, the critique presents a good insight into a clever but […]
I’d say the US broadcast media and online sources have shown restraint in the visual aids they’ve used covering Ebola this past week. Avoiding the horribly gory photos you can easily uncover on a Google search, in favor of health workers in HazMat suits and maps of the affected African regions. One visual that’s been […]
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