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What Would a Structured Public Health Practitioner Education Look Like?
Posted on March 22, 2018
In the United States, if you want to become a physician, there is a structured way of going about it. You go to college to get an undergrad degree, preferably in some science field. From there, you apply to medical school after taking the MCAT. Once you get into a medical school, you do four […]
The True Size of the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa
Posted on March 3, 2018
One of the best skills I learned from my dad is how to read a map. I can hold it every which way and understand the layout of landmarks in it. When I drove from Texas up to Pennsylvania, before the advent of smartphones and consumer GPS units, I bought a road atlas from Walmart […]
Whose Fault Is It That I’m Fat?
Posted on February 17, 2018
We were talking in an epidemiology class the other day about the association between obesity and diabetes. It’s a pretty strong association, with a lot of good evidence that obesity causes diabetes. As the students and the professor talked about this, the other teaching assistant in the course took some pictures of us. I was standing […]
Is Gun Violence the Symptom or the Disease?
Posted on February 15, 2018 5 Comments
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are about 33,500 firearm deaths each year in the United States. There are also within those about 21,300 suicides by firearm each year in the United States. That’s over 50,000 a lot of people each year whose lives are ended by firearms. (Edit: I corrected the […]
Epidemic Curves and Homicide Counts in Baltimore
Posted on February 12, 2018
One of the tools that we use in the investigation of outbreaks is the epidemic curve, or, as we say in the biz, the “epi curve.” An epidemic curve is a simple graphical representation of the number of cases per a unit of time over a span of time. For example, you could graph the number […]
America First by Neglecting the World?
Posted on February 7, 2018 2 Comments
As you may or may not have heard, Brenda Fitzgerald, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), resigned from her post last week. Some point to her investment in tobacco and pharmaceutical companies as the reason why she left. Others don’t care why she left, as long as Anne Schuchat is […]
A new public health surveillance tool?
Posted on January 11, 2018 3 Comments
When my wife and I found out that we were going to be parents, we kind of freaked out a little. It wasn’t that we were not ready. We were, mostly. It’s just that we were aware that a little person would soon be joining us, and we would be responsible for their life. We […]
The Parent Ren, Part VII: The Pathogens Strike Back
Posted on December 13, 2017
I remember being a child and having Strep throat in the summer a couple of times. It was miserable. It was so bad that I could not wait to go see the doctor and have my grandmother give me a shot of penicillin. (I spent most summers with my grandparents in the ancestral hometown in […]
A Quick Geographical Analysis of Homicides in Baltimore Before and During the Current Homicide Epidemic
Posted on November 16, 2017
There was a lot of police movement yesterday as I headed home. By the time I did get home, I found out via the news that a homicide detective had been shot in the head. His condition is very severe, and the prognosis is poor according to all reports. What a lot of people — […]
Who Are, or Should Be, the Vaccine Watchdogs?
Posted on November 14, 2017
It’s that time of the year again, when the influenza vaccine is recommended for the public and both public and private organizations spread the message of the vaccine’s benefits. They tell us that it is needed, why, where we can get one, and some of them even manage to throw in a sad story or […]
EpidemioLogical 