Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been missing in action, at least on this blog site (don’t worry, I’m still showing up for work). There were months during the pandemic where I was posting every week, working to keep you updated and to talk you through the multitude of faulty claims made about … Read more
Breaking News – COVID vaccines for kids 6 months to 5 years are finally here! We now have two vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) authorized for emergency use by the FDA and CDC to protect our youngest children from COVID. This is an exciting time for parents who have put life on hold to protect their … Read more
Mask requirements are changing, and I’m conflicted. I, along with all others on the planet who have been faithfully masking to protect self and others, am looking forward to being rid of these hot, itchy, uncomfortable things and to seeing everyone’s lovely faces again. But even though I don’t so much worry for my own … Read more
Why do we vaccinate? This is a super important question and one I don’t think enough people have fully thought through. The reasons aren’t as black and white as we might think. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First, I want to take a moment to ponder where we are and how things … Read more
Never put it past Mother Nature to take the upper hand. Dismiss the value and importance of Nature and the tightly interwoven relationship of human survival with the health of our natural world and our fellow citizens long enough, and Nature will take steps to remind us who is in control. We are seeing this … Read more
Recently my two sons returned from a long-awaited and well-deserved week at sleep away camp. The camp required vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours of attendance and had very reasonable masking guidelines (masking was required when gathering indoors in groups but not when outdoors). Yet, both kids (both fully vaccinated) came home … Read more
There have been some big COVID-related announcements lately that, depending on your opinions, could leave you feeling excited or confused… or both. Today, we’re talking COVID in the headlines: making sense of it all. We’ll examine vaccines for teens (with younger children soon to follow), ditching the masks if you are vaccinated (with a few … Read more
Today, we’re going to talk about COVID vaccines and your teen. But first, a quick word about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause. While I could spend a whole blogpost discussing this turn of events, my friend Dr. Jill Grimes has already written an amazing piece on the topic (read here). So, why reinvent the … Read more
Let’s look at a common refrain that we hear from many who are skeptical about getting a COVID vaccine. Translation: Do scientists even know what they are talking about? “The CDC and public health COVID guidelines keep changing. How can I trust what they say about COVID vaccines?” This concern makes total sense. At least, … Read more
Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series discussed a variety of topics; the immune system and how vaccines work; the phases of vaccine development and how we have much more rapidly, but safely, developed COVID vaccines; and specifics about the mRNA vaccines. Well, this post is going to be a hodge podge of different … Read more