Saturday Stories: Peer Review, #Masks4All, Talking To Kids, And The Public Health Of Protests

Simine Vazire, in Wired, on the failings of scientific peer review

Kimberly A. Prather, Chia C. Wang, and Robert T. Schooley, in Science, on how to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV2 (tl;dr - wear a mask)

Kate Julian, in The Atlantic, on how to talk to kids about the sad, scary, and unjust issues permeating society today.

Tara Haelle, in Forbes, on why public health experts support Black lives matter protests.

Photo By Mike Shaheen - https://www.flickr.com/photos/63015897@N02/49979513917/, CC BY 2.0, Link

Saturday Stories: COVID And Kids With Disabilities, Racist Statues, COVID Death Mysteries, And Virus Hunters

Hallie Levine, in The New York Times, on how children with disabilities are being left behind while the rest of country slowly reopens.

James Stout, in Popular Mechanics, explains how to use science to topple a racist statue.

Joel Achenbach,  Karin Brulliard and Ariana Eunjung Cha, in The Washington Post, on what we do and don't understand about who lives and dies with COVID. 

Maryn McKenna, in Smithsonian Magazine, on some of the world's foremost virus hunters.

Photo By Quidster4040 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0, Link

Saturday Stories: COVID files

Dr. Stephan Kamholz - Chair of Medicine at Maimonides Medical Center, died of COVID19 on June 11th, 2020. May his memory be a blessing 

Sharon Begley and Helen Branswell, in STAT, spoke with 11 epidemiologists to explore what we need to ensure such that we don't screw up dealing with COVID's inevitable second wave.

Tomas Pueyo, in Medium, on whether we should all be striving to respond more like Sweden?

Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer, in The New York Times, with a coronavirus vaccine tracker.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, in The New York Times, moderates a discussion about whether or not a coronavirus vaccine can be produced in record time

Rachel R. Hardeman, Eduardo M. Medina, and Rhea W. Boyd, in The New England Journal of Medicine, discuss stolen breaths and racial inequities in medicine.

Saturday Stories: Some Anti-Racism Resources #BlackLivesMatter

May his memory be a blessing

Corrine Shutak, in Medium, with 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice.

A non-bylined Google Doc of anti-racism resources for white people.

Quakelabs' collection of Canadian specific anti-racist resource.

Farrah Penn, in Buzzfeed, with 23 Phenomenal Young Adult Books By Black Authors From The First Half Of 2020

The University of Toronto's Office of Inclusion and Diversity with their collection of recent stories and resources on anti-racism.

@antisocialbritt, on Twitter, with her thread of children's books that discuss racism.

@bronze_bae, on Twitter, with her thread of young adult books that discuss racism.

Photo By Lorie Shaull - https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/49959004213/, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Saturday Stories: This Week's COVID Selections

Dr. Earline Austin, 63 yo NYC Physician, died on 4/3. Originally from Guyana, she lived in Fresh Meadows and was affiliated with Staten Island University Hospital. Attended Ross University for Medical School. May her memory be a blessing

Emily Chung, in the CBC, with everything you need to know to understand R-naught values.

Andy Larsen, in the Salt Lake City Tribune, with a breakdown of different locations and events and what we know of their risks in terms of spreading COVID.

Kimberly A. Prather, Chia C. Wang, and Robert T. Schooley, in Science, on how if you want life to return to some remote semblance of before's normal, if you're not already doing so, you need to start wearing a damn mask

Clayton Dalton, in The New Yorker, on what we lose when we become numb to mass death.

Saturday Stories: The COVID files

Dr.Sudheer Singh Chauhan, Internal Medicine Physician and Associate Program Director IM Residency Program at Jamaica Hospital, New York, died of COVID19 on May 19th. May his memory be a blessing

Tavis Apramian, in the CBC, on why you must discuss how you want to die with your family.

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how America's patchwork approach to containing COVID19 is likely to challenge any hope of near term success 

Kai Kupferschmidt, in Science, on why only some people are COVID super spreaders 

Natalie Kofler and Françoise Baylis, in Nature, on the perils, pitfalls, and disparities of "immunity passports". 

David Fisman, in The Globe and Mail, on what Canada needs to reopen safely and how at least now, it doesn't appear that we have it. 

Ian Sample, in The Guardian, with a rather depressing piece on COVID19 vaccine related challenges and realities.

And if you don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook, here's a segment I did with CTV's The Social on the very real impact these scary times has on our physical and mental well being

Saturday Stories: This week in COVID19

Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, UK RN, 28 years old, died from COVID April 12th. May her memory be a blessing.  

Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered Ebola, in Science, with his thoughts on COVID, both as an expert and as a survivor.

Erin Bromage, on her own blog, gives you some advice about your risks in various locations once your location's physical distancing rules are relaxed.

Lois Parshley, in Vox, on the long term complications COVID confers to some of its survivors.

Helen Branswell, in STAT, on how yes, cats can catch SARS-CoV2 and that while infected, spew piles of virus and infect other cats. Unclear right now if they can infect people

Kevin Roose, in The New York Times, wonders what happens if we get a COVID19 vaccine but 50% of the population refuses to take it?

Saturday Stories: The COVID Roundup

Dr. Bredy Pierre-Louis, Family Physician, Brooklyn, Died From COVID19. May his memory be a blessing

Caitlin Flanagan, in The Atlantic, on having stage IV colon cancer during the time of COVID19 (if you only read one piece this week, make it this one)

Orac, in Respectful Insolence, discusses Plandemic.

Tomas Pueyo, in Medium, on testing and contact tracing.

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, covers whether or not we should be currently worried about coronavirus mutations

FREE Help From My New Venture For Ontarians With Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Or Prediabetes But Stranded By COVID19

Are you an Ontario resident recently diagnosed with either type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes where COVID19 has prevented you from receiving comprehensive support to help manage and understand your new condition? If so, my new venture can help, and better yet, for FREE. Built initially to support weight management, Constant Health, our new digital behavioural intervention, is being re-positioned to help people with newly diagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes who in turn have been left stranded by COVID19.

Constant Health's iOS app (note, this opportunity is currently only available for those with iPhones or iPads as the Android app is still in development), will provide you with 12 weeks of private and secure (PHIPA compliant) access to both a Mayo clinic certified health coach as well as a registered dietitian who together, by way of text messaging and video chats, will work collaboratively with you on your diet and lifestyle to help improve your blood sugar control and teach you about your new condition.

Constant Health's technology includes a robust, open-ended collaborative goal setting engine, a built-in food diary, a searchable and filterable database of millions of the web's most popular recipe sites, along with a proprietary real-time dashboard which will allow our team to applaud and encourage your success as well as to help troubleshoot your struggles.

As with my office's practice (the Bariatric Medical Institute), Constant Health's services aren't limited to any particular dietary strategy, but instead work with you on whatever approach you feel would best suit your life and preferences. From low-fat, to keto, to vegan and everything in between Constant Health can help.

Rest assured, there are no strings whatsoever. Currently, thanks to an unrestricted grant from Novo Nordisk, we have a limited number of spots available to freely offer and plainly, we are not currently accepting paid patients. However due to provincial medical licensing regulations for both MDs and RDs, and the need for physician screening, we can currently only extend this offer to Ontarians.

If you're interested, live in Ontario, and have an iPhone, simply fill out this quick survey and if eligible, our office will contact you to book a consultation with me so that I can explore your medical history and have a peek at your lab results for us to mutually determine if the program is for you.

Saturday Stories: This Week in #COVID19

Arlene Reid, 51, mother of 5 and PSW in Ontario working in LTC, died from COVID19 on April 27th. May her memory be a blessing.

Gid MK, in Medium, with his meta-analysis of reported infection fatality rates for COVID19

Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee, in Inside, on the out of control "science" of this pandemic.

Joss Fong, in Vox, with a great explainer on how to understand that graph of all the countries' COVID cases you keep seeing. 

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, with a spectacular guide on how to make sense of the all over the place that is COVID19.

Caitlin Flanagan, in The Atlantic, with the 2020 commencement speech you're never hear (but you should so read).