Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tonight, I’d like to refer you to a remarkable article in the Wall Street Journal that chronicles the missteps at the Centers for Disease Control that delayed COVID-19 testing for three weeks in February. This delay certainly contributed to a lack of understanding of how widespread the disease was in the United States, but also left institutionsContinue reading “The CDC failed the United States when we needed it the most.”

From the beginning, I have been projecting that herd immunity would occur much sooner than was being predicted by many of the public health mathematicians. This was because immunity in their calculations was based simply on their estimates of number of people infected with COVID-19, while I felt immunity was more common and provided moreContinue reading “The New York Times finally gets on board with herd immunity.”

I received a lot of really good feedback about the Russian vaccine post with several people raising issues about the Russian vaccine and the vaccines in general. While I have written about COVID-19 vaccines before, I thought this was an important enough topic to dedicate another post. -The Russian vaccine uses live human adenovirus. HasContinue reading “More on the Russia vaccine and COVID-19 vaccines in general.”

A few days ago, the Russians announced that they had developed a vaccine for COVID-19. They stated that the vaccine was documented to be “effective and safe,” and would be made available within weeks to individuals and even other countries who wanted to be vaccinated. In addition, prominent Russian leaders such as President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had becomeContinue reading “Is the Russian COVID-19 vaccine real? Likely, but we need to see the data to be sure.”

The Big 10’s decision to delay their football season from this fall till next spring has been debated widely in the press. Several conferences including the Big 12, the SEC, and the ACC disagreed with the Big 10 (along with the PAC 12, the MAC and the Ivy League) and felt that they were safeContinue reading “Why no Big Ten football this fall?”

Over the past few days I’ve been concerned about several news stories focused on an exceptional number of severe neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection. While these complications are not surprising, since almost every human viral infection is associated with some type of neurological disease, the spectrum of these complications was worse, and the implied frequencies seemed higher thanContinue reading “Are neurological complications really common with COVID-19?”

Tonight, I was going to do a blog about the Big Ten canceling the football season and the medical reasons why it was done. Then, the league issued a press release saying that they had not actually taken the vote that was reported in the Detroit Free Press. Therefore, I’m going to hold judgment untilContinue reading “Waiting on the Big Ten’s decision and an update on the numbers in the US.”

Yesterday there were a number of news stories highlighting Dr. Anthony Fauci’s belief that the chances of having a “highly effective” coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine were “slim.” The statement given during a session at the Brown University School of Public Health drew much attention, but the actual meaning of his statement needs clarification. Dr. Fauci definedContinue reading “The back story to Dr. Fauci’s comments about the “slim chance” for a 98% effective COVID-19 vaccine.”

Comment Dr. Baker, I realize the pressure working parents are under but a recent covid death of a 7 year old in Ga. contradicts Trumps comment that kids are immune. Certainly teachers, administrators and staff are vulnerable. Wouldn’t the prudent move be to halt in person schools until this country gets a handle on thisContinue reading “In response to yesterday’s post on schools in NY reopening.”

New York’s governor announced that the state’s schools would be able to open this fall. Several criteria were provided, some that allowed the schools to open and others that would cause in-person classes to be suspended. I thought it would be of value to review these criteria. Since many other states are still making decisions,Continue reading “New York opens schools. Can this be a model for other states?”