Category Archives: Medicine
Cancer Risk and Computed Tomography Imaging
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th April 2025Projected Lifetime Cancer Risks From Current Computed Tomography Imaging is a study just published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study concludes: “That at current utilization and radiation dose levels, CT examinations in 2023 were projected to result in approximately 103,000 future cancers over the course of the lifetime of exposed patients. If current practices persist,…
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Postoperative Outcomes Following Preweekend Surgery
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th March 2025A paper just published by the JAMA Online (it can be downloaded below) shows a small but “significant increase in risk of complications, readmissions, and mortality compared with those treated after the weekend. Further study is needed to understand differences in care that may underpin these observations and ensure that patients receive high-quality care regardless…
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The Press Loses What’s Left of Its Mind Over NIH Cuts to Indirect Costs
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th February 2025The news that Elon Musk and the Trump administration want to cut indirect costs on NIH (National Institutes of Health) grants has caused a tsunami of hysteria not seen since the year 2000 craze. NIH Budget Cuts Are the ‘Apocalypse of American Science,’ Experts Say. Much of the outcries are the result of ignorance, but…
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The Crash at Reagan Airport – Why Primary Prevention Often Fails
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st January 2025An article in the Wall Street Journal offers an instructive example of the failure of primary prevention. Primary prevention in medicine is the attempt to avoid a disease event that has yet to happen. An example is the use of lipid-lowering drugs to prevent cardiovascular disease in a subject who has never suffered from CV…
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Cancer Statistics 2025
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th January 2025The American Cancer Society has released its annual report on the incidence and mortality of cancer in the USA. The full report can be downloaded below. I’ll summarize the salient features of the ACS’s data. They come from registries that assembled the information (occurrence, outcomes, and incidence data) through the end of 2021 and mortality…
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Report of Florida Grand Jury Vaccine Investigation
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th January 2025The Florida Grand Jury appointed by Gov. DeSantis to investigate COVID-19 vaccines has issued its report. The full document can be downloaded below. It is 140 pages. I have excerpted key parts of it to highlight its findings. The report is remarkably thorough and well-written. It reads as though composed by someone with a highly…
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Why the Covid Epidemic Ended and How Best to Combat the Next One
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th December 2024The late and unlamented epidemic was an exercise in misapprehension. My subject is to explain its brief course as a preparative against the next respiratory virus that achieves epidemic proportions. COVID-19 lasted about three years, just as did the flu pandemic of a century earlier. However, it was far less lethal than its predecessor, killing…
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The Ghost of COVID
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th November 2024Niall Ferguson is a brilliant historian and commentator on current events. The following fragment of a sentence is from a recent article on the election. […the Covid vaccines that saved a significant number of older voters’ lives in 2021.] Ferguson’s topic is not the COVID vaccine, it’s politics. But he obviously thinks the vaccines were…
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Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th October 2024Chronic urticaria is defined as wheals (hives), angioedema (swelling), or both that has been continuously or intermittently present for at least 6 weeks, in contrast to acute urticaria which is an episode of less than 6 weeks duration. This condition is common affecting about half a million Americans. It has recently been the subject of…
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Macular Degeneration and Drusen
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th October 2024Macular Degeneration (MD) affects central vision. It is most commonly observed in people over the age of 60. It is much more common in whites than in blacks or hispanics. Severity is divided into early, intermediate, and late types. The late type is additionally divided into “dry” and “wet” forms, with the dry form making up…
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