Recent Health Care Commentaries

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Healing America’s Pain
Much of the country is lost . . . painfully lost. Overwhelmed by suspicion and fear, a terrible ugliness pervades our times. Some feel so threatened by anyone who knocks on their door or comes up their driveway, that they answer with a gun. Chained to their own fears, they stare at the dark shadows of their self-imposed isolation, trusting...
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April 28, 2023
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What Matters Most
With an looming invasion in Ukraine, mandate protests, near-total dysfunction in Washington, it’s nice to know that there are volunteers who are willing to be there when needed. This story is likely one of thousands repeated every day that demonstrate the power of citizenship . . . even in tough times. As reported by Steve Hartman for CBS News. “When...
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February 15, 2022
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The Few. The Proud. The Stupid
It’s been little more than a year since the January insurrection where Senators and House members hid from an angry mob of Trump supporters, (And yes, Republicans, a majority of rational people know this. They’re just spending too much time on the bench to take action against what’s likely to come.) Now, with the surge of the Omicron, a variant...
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January 14, 2022
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Are Vaccination Mandates Ethical?
To mandate, or not to mandate, that is the question. For 18 months, Americans have tolerated masks, travel, and event restrictions, and virtual home hibernation. “Overall in the United States, 74.1 percent of Americans over five years old have at least one coronavirus shot, and 62.8 percent are fully vaccinated.” However, just when you thought it was safe to step...
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November 30, 2021
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The Insiders
Jeffrey Wigand and Frances Haugen have two things in common. Both blew the whistle on impropriety within their respective companies, and both appeared on the news show, 60 Minutes to tell their stories. At the social media company, Facebook, Haugen—with a degree in computer engineering, and a master’s degree in business from Harvard—has 15 years experience in the computer world...
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October 8, 2021
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Do You Doom Surf?
Doomsurfing and doomscrolling . . .  [refer] to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news . . . without the ability to stop or step back. — Merriam Webster Covid, political tribalism, uncertainty, distrust. Up late at night doomsurfing? The new obsession has become a default mechanism used by many to addictively scroll or surf through...
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September 21, 2021
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My Wants v. Our Needs
The country and the entire world have suffered from a deadly virus for more than a year and a half, and thanks to the delta variant, the danger is still thriving. But that’s only one of the problems. America is not only an economic powerhouse, but leads the world in arts and sciences. It’s sad to see that fewer and...
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July 16, 2021
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When Will This Madness End?
“…every scientific and medical report shows that whenever you have a re-opening—whether you want to call it a re-opening of businesses or of just a re-opening of society—in the aftermath of something like this, it actually will lead to an increase and spread.” That statement acknowledged what medical experts were telling state officials during the long months of COVID-19. But...
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May 23, 2021
The Compassionate and the Moralizer
Two stories about the coronavirus vaccine caught my attention. Embed from Getty Images In a recent letter to New York Times ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah, one reader writes: “I work for a hospital, but in an administrative job. I do not interact with patients. I have worked from home since March. I am not at high risk for contracting Covid-19...
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March 5, 2021
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Will Shakespeare, No Anti-Vaxxer
Three virus-related stories. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The coronavirus vaccine is on its way. The bad news is it’s under cyber-attacks aimed at stealing “technology for keeping the vaccines refrigerated in transit or to sabotage the movements [of shipments],” The New York Times reports (Dec. 7). “Josh Cormay,” the Times writes, “a coronavirus...
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December 9, 2020