AAHH: updates and questions answered

  Maybe we'll start this one with a not-so guilty pleasure, now that you know I'm going to say good things about coffee!  If you're like me, it's not hard at all to bring to mind the intense aroma of coffee.  Grinding coffee, brewing coffee, the steamy delicious smell wafting from the top of your favorite mug, or the warm taste of the first cup in the morning... take your time, close your eyes if you wish and imagine. And now, here are some facts that maybe you didn't know, about what a good choice this is as your beverage! A 2017 article in the British Medical Journal by Poole et al. reviewed the findings from well over 200 studies that had analyzed the relationship between coffee intake and health outcomes. After all the details were sorted out, they concluded that on balance, drinking coffee was more likely to be associated with health benefit than harm to health, over a wide range of health conditions that had been studied.  The comparison held up when looking a...

  How do I make sense of all the talk about COVID19 vaccines? First, it's important for you to understand how I think about vaccines in general.  My primary specialty is pediatrics and adolescent medicine, since 1986.  Following my training years, I immediately spent a year studying at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene (now the Bloomberg School of Public Health) in Baltimore. My focus there was on international child and adolescent health, disease prevention on a population level, and how to improve health quality of life around the world. My own personal history of education and medical practice forms the foundation for how I think about vaccines.  A number I will never forget may surprise you. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, an average of 2.6 million children were dying of measles every year. Every year. 2.6 million. Widespread use of this safe and effective vaccine was responsible for saving millions of lives, so that betwee...