Prior to the current pandemic, the news cycle was dominated by the opioid epidemic, a beast that has taken the lives of many people from all walks of life. Recently, the Sackler family’s Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, plead guilty to federal criminal charges related to the marketing and selling of opioids. Universities, like […]
By: Erin Stair, MD, MPH Let’s talk bacteria on our phones, but first, a story: A young woman was walking slowly down a busy New York City sidewalk. Her head was down and her eyes were glued to her phone as she typed something on the keyboard. I was walking in the other direction. […]
How many deaths did COVID-19 really cause? Causation can be tricky, especially if you believe in upstream & downstream causes for something happening. So, I wanted to teach a lesson on causation using my coffee mugs. I posted a link to my Vimeo video that you can watch OR I invite you to watch the […]
Whether or not kids should go back to school during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is a hot topic with strong opinions on both sides of the issue. This includes expert public health opinions on both sides of the issue, so it’s not as if all the public health professionals support one side over the other. […]
It seems like everyone is fighting over when to wear a face mask. Some people don’t want to wear one at all. I just hopped on Twitter and was blessed with watching a video of a man telling his viewers that they can take their face masks and stick it where the sun doesn’t […]
By Erin Stair, MD, MPH For a field that was already fighting for trust, Public Health is in trouble due to the inconsistency in messaging regarding the pandemic. I’ve spent the last week listening to angry people on the phone and reading their pissed-off messages about the inconsistent and conflicting messages regarding the […]
Our Health Information Crisis, happening now: A few months ago, I was scrolling through a Facebook group I joined and saw a post from a woman who was inquiring what vaccines her new puppy should get. She wrote two, detailed paragraphs and was clearly hesitant about vaccines. One of the group Admins responded that the […]
Ban live meat markets. It’s time for that and much, much more. There has to be a much stronger international effort to ban live meat markets and come down harder on the illegal wildlife trade. It didn’t happen after SARS, but it needs to happen now. Turning a blind eye to them is the equivalent […]
By Erin Stair MD, MPH Most of America has been ordered to shut down as we brace for the uphill battle against COVID-19. Yet, despite overwhelming consensus from the medical and public health community, there has been shouts to open up America, restart our economy and allow people to work. There has been a lot […]
Nuclear power and climate change. It’s a heated topic to say the least. Talks about climate change are heavy and ongoing. You often hear, especially from fans of The Green New Deal, “We literally only have 12 years to fix the problem!” Is that hyperbolic, or is that the truth? While there […]
From nuclear war to mass shootings, we worry about a lot of things that could kill a lot of people. I mostly worry about emerging infectious diseases or EIDs. It could be a vector-borne disease, like ones transmitted by mosquitoes. Dengue fever is an example. It could be a zoonotic disease, or one that jumps […]
I’m a little late with these! Here are the top 3 wellness headlines for the week, as picked out by my dog, our chief Blooming Wellness mascot, Barnaby. 😉 These are 3 very short videos from my Instagram page, but I promise you’ll learn something by watching each. Drinking makes you live longer? Nuts and […]
BOOM. And after watching this, instead of panicking and posting nonsense to Facebook, consider donating to some of the organizations actually doing something to battle the disease and contain the outbreak. Just a suggestion! 😉