I’m a high school biology teacher in rural western NY. In addition to general bio and AP Bio, I also teach an infectious diseases elective (prior to teaching, I was a clinical/research tech working in an ACTG/AVEG lab). Your work has been a great source of info for me and my students!
Oh my goodness, this makes me so happy! I think this is one of the critical solutions: get people to think about public health in grade school like we do chemistry and physics. Thanks for your work!
While you diversify, please do continue to give us updates on COVID-19. It is a daily struggle to figure out my risk budget. So far my caution and good luck have allowed me to stay Covid-free.
I worked in the contracts and grants office of TAMU Ag program for 8 years many years ago. Part of my job was to read, edit for grammar, and submit research findings to the THECB. I know good science when I read it. I have trusted you implicitly since I read your first posting. You write science based truths in a way that I can share with my non-science loving friends. Thank you. And congratulations on turning 4!
I'm a covid writer in Knoxville, Tn. Covid turned into a political football and as a result we had one of the worst responses in the world. Our emergency care infrastructure has still not recovered. The effects of covid will stay with this town for years. We are also the last metropolitan area to not test our wastewater for pathogens. We are completely unprepared for the next pathogen that moves in. We won't see it coming until it's too late to do anything about it. As of this last covid wave I've started referencing your work more and more frequently. I thought I would be done with the topic of covid by this time. Four years ago, I was a guy on a safety committee at UPS who decided to take this seriously. I'm still taking it seriously.
I guess I missed the survey but I would love to see info on the impact of families foregoing children’s vaccines to others in the community. I am just past 60 so sometimes wondering in I should get my childhood vaccines again because of this. I have gotten tdap numerous times because first I worked at a clinic with elderly patients and later worked labor and delivery and postpartum.
I suspect very few subscribers know about the ongoing shortage of legal prescribed opioids in the U.S. as this has rarely been reported. A person undergoing surgery or in need of a strong pain medication - an opioid- may find that their pharmacy is out of stock almost all of the time. This leads them to searching for opioids on the street, or buying heroin.
The reaction to opioid addiction has gone overboard, and now people who have a legitimate need for them have a very hard time finding them. The reason for the shortage: the DEA has imposed quotas on the manufacturing companies. They are not allowed to make enough to fill the demand. The DEA has lowered the quotas for 2024.
Been on methadone for over a decade for botched spinal surgeries. Now it's all but impossible to get my script filled but I could go across town, poke a few holes in my arm and tell them I'm a junkie and they can't give me methadone fast enough. This country is so upside down that it's pathetic.
I wonder if this is why I was undertreated for post surgical pain after an emergency surgery a few months ago. I didn’t have trouble at the pharmacy, but the surgeon refused to Rx a reasonable amount, telling me to take Tylenol & Advil, which I was already doing! Undertreatment of post-op pain actually delays healing & can contribute to the development of complications. I’m very mad that I was made to suffer in this way. I didn’t seek street drugs; that’s just way too dangerous these days. No one should do that, ever.
Due to doctors over prescribing pain pills in the past there is now pressure to reduce prescriptions for opioids. So it's a double whammy. Hard to find a doctor to give you a proper prescription, and even if you get a legal prescription it may be very difficult to get your prescription filled. But if you are rich enough, you just search for another surgeon till you find one willing to give you the proper pain prescription. And I suspect insiders know where these prescriptions can get filled - maybe at pharmacies that tell the general public they are out of opioids but actually keep some hidden in the back for their special friends. Just a theory based on how the world works.
Real opioids like you get at a pharmacy sell for big money on the street because addicts know they are pure and know the dose. Less risk of overdose or being poisoned.
The updated current recommendations for medical professionals as far as Rx's for opioids is to start all patients with the basic Advil/Tylenol (ibuprofen/acetaminophen) regimen, and try to avoid writing any Rx's for opioids. It is partly in reaction to the overRx'ing of opioids over the past few decades, and there are now tracking mechanisms in place (possibly varies from state to state) so that as a provider if you write "too many" you will get flagged. It is also partly due to newer research based on volunteers who have procedures performed with moderate post-op pain expected, that it has been shown in double-blind studies that more patients received effective pain relief with NSAIDs than with opioids.
Some may think that some doctors (MDs, PharmDs, DDSes, etc.) may have hidden stashes for "special friends" but I can assure you that licensing boards can revoke or suspend your license to practice if you are out of compliance.
But for sure it is very frustrating as a consumer to not be able to count on getting effective pain relief.
My post surgical pain was not adequately treated. I don’t giving a flying F about updated recommendations and your double blind crap.
I’m long past recovered now, and not in that horrible pain anymore. I do not take pain meds of any kind normally, not taking APAP or Ibu unless I’m running a fever. But I resent the pain I was put through needlessly!
When I read MyChart records of my immediate surgical recovery, it now makes sense to me why I woke up crying in pain. The RN evidently had to justify giving me anything more than APAP & Ibu. So I was deprived of medication until I was weeping & begging, not understanding that relief was being withheld from me on purpose!
Shame on you, and all medical professionals doing this to people. Shame on you for over prescribing & then doubling your error by under prescribing.
I was given an RX to take one pill every 8 hours FOR BREAKTHROUGH PAIN ONLY and only given 9 pills 👉 on a Thursday! To get a refill I would’ve had to call on Monday & there’s a big sign in the exam room notifying patients that pain medication isn’t refilled on weekends and refills take Two Days to process SO “PLAN AHEAD.” Do the math here and tell who Wasn’t Planning Ahead? And, I’d told the surgeon I had to travel and couldn’t stay home. He KNEW I’d be in more than average “moderate pain.”
I will curse him and blame him for the pain I went though as long as I live.
Gonna assume you are generalizing your anger to medical providers at large, as I don't write Rxes. Was only relaying a recently published article about opioid prescribing. I feel that they've gone overboard in the wrong direction thus resulting in more suffering for patients with severe pain. The RN cannot legally adjust your meds without a Dr's order, so the surgeon or attending post-op needed to do it for you, and I'm sorry they didn't.
Thank you Janice, yes, as I said I’m mad I was needlessly made to suffer. I read into your comments that what was done to me is OK because of some double blind study. I didn’t pick up on the you disagreed with it at all. I’m sorry 😣
Thanks for all you've done in providing clear, concise, research and fact-based public health information for the last 4 years.
Thanks for all the work you do, and have done. I have found your work very useful, especially during the height of the pandemic, as a reference to someone else, recognized more broadly than I, who was saying either the same things I was, or providing supporting science and data-driven information. Your ability to communicate clearly while sticking to the science has been a real help.
We learned several lessons in this Pandemic.
1. It's not enough to provide the the data and references to the science when someone else is misinterpreting the same science with an interpretation that sounds good but is actually fact-free because, if it fits the preconceptions of the readers... or if the readers of the misinformation trust the messenger, whose claim to fame is not science but opinion, data and references are too hard to follow, and they'll go with the explanation that they like, not the one that may be uncomfortable.
2. Clear, factual messaging is hard to write. In clinical work, in slower times, I was pretty good at communicating with patients, families and even community groups about topics (and cases) I was expert on. In the height of the Pandemic, the material was coming fast and furious, and distilling it was time-consuming. And worse, we could see data supporting a premise one day, only to have another study (or several) provide more convincing data of a different conclusion the next. I suffered from data and information overload, and my near-daily updates to my organization meant I was often accused of not being consistent with the "facts" (a moveable feast!) or that I was lying.
3. Distilling solid conclusions from research studies and journal articles can be tedious, and especially when someone's reading preprints, you have to essentially read the article as if you're one of their journal reviewers. I might read, at the Pandemic's height, 10 or more articles per day, but for preprints, I was often reduced to one or two, because I was doing my own data analysis, looking up citations and sometimes, providing feedback to the authors of errors or questions.
You did a lot of the same work, and provided me a cross-check on my work and more important, my conclusions.
And you were better at communicating the intricacies of the material than I was able to do (in my defense, I was also working full-time in a field outside epidemiology and public health and wasn't sleeping a lot).
Hi, First of all, I am a retired executive that tries to keep my synapses firing by consuming all kinds of credible, scientific information although I have no formal science training other than what it took to get a BS. What I want to share is an experience that surprised me but confirmed how much misinformation is out there.
Yesterday I was soliciting help for a young friend whose husband had a 'brain bleed.' That was the language used. In my conversation with about 6-7 others, I deferred to one who had identified herself as a nurse who treated these conditions. Her response was essentially to blame the co-vid vaccine for this cerebral accident of my friend's husband, saying they are treating so many more patients with this diagnosis.
A nurse blaming the vaccine after I deferred to her as an authority flummoxed me.
I did not try to debate her at all....but, what a crazy deal. No wonder we will never get this or any other virus under control.
Opioids are interesting because they are not just the drug use - they are accompanied by side effects like clusters of hepatitis-C and, occasionally HIV. There are complications most people are not aware of - like endocarditis. I think most of the autopsies I’ve done over the past 10 years with mitral or tricuspid disease have been drug users. And syphilis is making a comeback, with a significant number of drug users among those cases.
Interesting info, Carl. Had no clue about the cardiac complications from IV drug use. As a retired cop, I wonder how many of the deaths I investigated had that as a contributing factor in "early demise" of many of these IV drug users.
This long COVID sufferer started reading YLE early on, before she got COVID and before long COVID was even a topic of interest of concern. Thank you so much for starting this and, now, keeping it going.
Thank you for all the years of science-driven content, hard work, and your engaging voice to keep this information topical and interesting! Still regularly opening your emails and learning what's going on in the public health arena which helps me professionally and personally! Greatly appreciate you!
I’m a high school biology teacher in rural western NY. In addition to general bio and AP Bio, I also teach an infectious diseases elective (prior to teaching, I was a clinical/research tech working in an ACTG/AVEG lab). Your work has been a great source of info for me and my students!
Oh my goodness, this makes me so happy! I think this is one of the critical solutions: get people to think about public health in grade school like we do chemistry and physics. Thanks for your work!
While you diversify, please do continue to give us updates on COVID-19. It is a daily struggle to figure out my risk budget. So far my caution and good luck have allowed me to stay Covid-free.
This was a resounding theme in the survey: Continue Covid coverage. This won’t be going away!
Thank you! Thank you!
Happy Birthday! Excellent post; I especially like the graphics' clarity and elegance.
I worked in the contracts and grants office of TAMU Ag program for 8 years many years ago. Part of my job was to read, edit for grammar, and submit research findings to the THECB. I know good science when I read it. I have trusted you implicitly since I read your first posting. You write science based truths in a way that I can share with my non-science loving friends. Thank you. And congratulations on turning 4!
I'm a covid writer in Knoxville, Tn. Covid turned into a political football and as a result we had one of the worst responses in the world. Our emergency care infrastructure has still not recovered. The effects of covid will stay with this town for years. We are also the last metropolitan area to not test our wastewater for pathogens. We are completely unprepared for the next pathogen that moves in. We won't see it coming until it's too late to do anything about it. As of this last covid wave I've started referencing your work more and more frequently. I thought I would be done with the topic of covid by this time. Four years ago, I was a guy on a safety committee at UPS who decided to take this seriously. I'm still taking it seriously.
I guess I missed the survey but I would love to see info on the impact of families foregoing children’s vaccines to others in the community. I am just past 60 so sometimes wondering in I should get my childhood vaccines again because of this. I have gotten tdap numerous times because first I worked at a clinic with elderly patients and later worked labor and delivery and postpartum.
At 74, I have also wondered about repeating childhood vacs, esp, measles since that disease is rearing its ugly head again.
And thanks so much for your hard work during the past 4 years
Thanks Katelyn for all your good work and informative posts. Be well.
PLEASE don’t forget us seniors who are still dying of COVID!! Can’t get PCR tests, no
one masking. Hate to allow anti-science
ideas to take root.
I suspect very few subscribers know about the ongoing shortage of legal prescribed opioids in the U.S. as this has rarely been reported. A person undergoing surgery or in need of a strong pain medication - an opioid- may find that their pharmacy is out of stock almost all of the time. This leads them to searching for opioids on the street, or buying heroin.
The reaction to opioid addiction has gone overboard, and now people who have a legitimate need for them have a very hard time finding them. The reason for the shortage: the DEA has imposed quotas on the manufacturing companies. They are not allowed to make enough to fill the demand. The DEA has lowered the quotas for 2024.
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2023/11/3/dea-plans-further-cuts-in-rx-opioid-supply-in-2024
Here's a comment on the article I linked to:
Been on methadone for over a decade for botched spinal surgeries. Now it's all but impossible to get my script filled but I could go across town, poke a few holes in my arm and tell them I'm a junkie and they can't give me methadone fast enough. This country is so upside down that it's pathetic.
I wonder if this is why I was undertreated for post surgical pain after an emergency surgery a few months ago. I didn’t have trouble at the pharmacy, but the surgeon refused to Rx a reasonable amount, telling me to take Tylenol & Advil, which I was already doing! Undertreatment of post-op pain actually delays healing & can contribute to the development of complications. I’m very mad that I was made to suffer in this way. I didn’t seek street drugs; that’s just way too dangerous these days. No one should do that, ever.
Due to doctors over prescribing pain pills in the past there is now pressure to reduce prescriptions for opioids. So it's a double whammy. Hard to find a doctor to give you a proper prescription, and even if you get a legal prescription it may be very difficult to get your prescription filled. But if you are rich enough, you just search for another surgeon till you find one willing to give you the proper pain prescription. And I suspect insiders know where these prescriptions can get filled - maybe at pharmacies that tell the general public they are out of opioids but actually keep some hidden in the back for their special friends. Just a theory based on how the world works.
Real opioids like you get at a pharmacy sell for big money on the street because addicts know they are pure and know the dose. Less risk of overdose or being poisoned.
The updated current recommendations for medical professionals as far as Rx's for opioids is to start all patients with the basic Advil/Tylenol (ibuprofen/acetaminophen) regimen, and try to avoid writing any Rx's for opioids. It is partly in reaction to the overRx'ing of opioids over the past few decades, and there are now tracking mechanisms in place (possibly varies from state to state) so that as a provider if you write "too many" you will get flagged. It is also partly due to newer research based on volunteers who have procedures performed with moderate post-op pain expected, that it has been shown in double-blind studies that more patients received effective pain relief with NSAIDs than with opioids.
Some may think that some doctors (MDs, PharmDs, DDSes, etc.) may have hidden stashes for "special friends" but I can assure you that licensing boards can revoke or suspend your license to practice if you are out of compliance.
But for sure it is very frustrating as a consumer to not be able to count on getting effective pain relief.
My post surgical pain was not adequately treated. I don’t giving a flying F about updated recommendations and your double blind crap.
I’m long past recovered now, and not in that horrible pain anymore. I do not take pain meds of any kind normally, not taking APAP or Ibu unless I’m running a fever. But I resent the pain I was put through needlessly!
When I read MyChart records of my immediate surgical recovery, it now makes sense to me why I woke up crying in pain. The RN evidently had to justify giving me anything more than APAP & Ibu. So I was deprived of medication until I was weeping & begging, not understanding that relief was being withheld from me on purpose!
Shame on you, and all medical professionals doing this to people. Shame on you for over prescribing & then doubling your error by under prescribing.
I was given an RX to take one pill every 8 hours FOR BREAKTHROUGH PAIN ONLY and only given 9 pills 👉 on a Thursday! To get a refill I would’ve had to call on Monday & there’s a big sign in the exam room notifying patients that pain medication isn’t refilled on weekends and refills take Two Days to process SO “PLAN AHEAD.” Do the math here and tell who Wasn’t Planning Ahead? And, I’d told the surgeon I had to travel and couldn’t stay home. He KNEW I’d be in more than average “moderate pain.”
I will curse him and blame him for the pain I went though as long as I live.
Gonna assume you are generalizing your anger to medical providers at large, as I don't write Rxes. Was only relaying a recently published article about opioid prescribing. I feel that they've gone overboard in the wrong direction thus resulting in more suffering for patients with severe pain. The RN cannot legally adjust your meds without a Dr's order, so the surgeon or attending post-op needed to do it for you, and I'm sorry they didn't.
Thank you Janice, yes, as I said I’m mad I was needlessly made to suffer. I read into your comments that what was done to me is OK because of some double blind study. I didn’t pick up on the you disagreed with it at all. I’m sorry 😣
I am interested in any research on childcare providers and infectious disease cases brought in by unvaccinated/unboosted families.
Keep doing what you do as long as you enjoy it and believe it's making a difference. Your writings are well received!
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT (BLUF):
Thanks for all you've done in providing clear, concise, research and fact-based public health information for the last 4 years.
Thanks for all the work you do, and have done. I have found your work very useful, especially during the height of the pandemic, as a reference to someone else, recognized more broadly than I, who was saying either the same things I was, or providing supporting science and data-driven information. Your ability to communicate clearly while sticking to the science has been a real help.
We learned several lessons in this Pandemic.
1. It's not enough to provide the the data and references to the science when someone else is misinterpreting the same science with an interpretation that sounds good but is actually fact-free because, if it fits the preconceptions of the readers... or if the readers of the misinformation trust the messenger, whose claim to fame is not science but opinion, data and references are too hard to follow, and they'll go with the explanation that they like, not the one that may be uncomfortable.
2. Clear, factual messaging is hard to write. In clinical work, in slower times, I was pretty good at communicating with patients, families and even community groups about topics (and cases) I was expert on. In the height of the Pandemic, the material was coming fast and furious, and distilling it was time-consuming. And worse, we could see data supporting a premise one day, only to have another study (or several) provide more convincing data of a different conclusion the next. I suffered from data and information overload, and my near-daily updates to my organization meant I was often accused of not being consistent with the "facts" (a moveable feast!) or that I was lying.
3. Distilling solid conclusions from research studies and journal articles can be tedious, and especially when someone's reading preprints, you have to essentially read the article as if you're one of their journal reviewers. I might read, at the Pandemic's height, 10 or more articles per day, but for preprints, I was often reduced to one or two, because I was doing my own data analysis, looking up citations and sometimes, providing feedback to the authors of errors or questions.
You did a lot of the same work, and provided me a cross-check on my work and more important, my conclusions.
And you were better at communicating the intricacies of the material than I was able to do (in my defense, I was also working full-time in a field outside epidemiology and public health and wasn't sleeping a lot).
Hi, First of all, I am a retired executive that tries to keep my synapses firing by consuming all kinds of credible, scientific information although I have no formal science training other than what it took to get a BS. What I want to share is an experience that surprised me but confirmed how much misinformation is out there.
Yesterday I was soliciting help for a young friend whose husband had a 'brain bleed.' That was the language used. In my conversation with about 6-7 others, I deferred to one who had identified herself as a nurse who treated these conditions. Her response was essentially to blame the co-vid vaccine for this cerebral accident of my friend's husband, saying they are treating so many more patients with this diagnosis.
A nurse blaming the vaccine after I deferred to her as an authority flummoxed me.
I did not try to debate her at all....but, what a crazy deal. No wonder we will never get this or any other virus under control.
What sad commentary this is. Belief is so strong, it overcomes facts.
Opioids are interesting because they are not just the drug use - they are accompanied by side effects like clusters of hepatitis-C and, occasionally HIV. There are complications most people are not aware of - like endocarditis. I think most of the autopsies I’ve done over the past 10 years with mitral or tricuspid disease have been drug users. And syphilis is making a comeback, with a significant number of drug users among those cases.
Interesting info, Carl. Had no clue about the cardiac complications from IV drug use. As a retired cop, I wonder how many of the deaths I investigated had that as a contributing factor in "early demise" of many of these IV drug users.
This long COVID sufferer started reading YLE early on, before she got COVID and before long COVID was even a topic of interest of concern. Thank you so much for starting this and, now, keeping it going.
Thank you for all the years of science-driven content, hard work, and your engaging voice to keep this information topical and interesting! Still regularly opening your emails and learning what's going on in the public health arena which helps me professionally and personally! Greatly appreciate you!