Category Archives: News

Were the lockdowns a mistake?

Were the lockdowns a mistake? To that nagging question, the answer increasingly seems to be yes. Certainly, they were a novelty. As novelist Lionel Shriver writes, “We’ve never before responded to a contagion by closing down whole countries.” As I noted in May, the 1957-58 Asian flu killed between 75,000 and 116,000 people in the… Read More »

Convalescent plasma: another controversial clash of politics & science

You’d need a pretty big, stiff broom to sweep away all of the hype dished out by the Trump Administration as it announced an Emergency Use Authorization for convalescent plasma – the liquid component of blood that may be tapped for disease-fighting antibodies from people who’ve been infected with COVID-19. Before the announcement was even… Read More »

Gilead’s Veklury wins expanded FDA nod for moderate COVID-19 patients despite mixed data

Amid daily headlines about COVID-19 vaccines and trends, Gilead’s Veklury, also known as remdesivir, remains the only antiviral drug authorized to treat the illness. With a new move from the FDA, the medicine’s emergency green light is a little broader—despite some lingering questions about its efficacy. Under the expanded emergency use authorization (EUA), all hospitalized… Read More »