Dr. Lorna Breen’s Family: Doctors Shouldn’t Be ‘Punished’ for Seeking Support

When Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency-room physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, died by suicide in April 2020, her family and colleagues were cratered. She had been on the front lines of the huge, early COVID-19 surge before contracting the virus herself, and she confided in family that the anxiety, exhaustion and uncertainty were overwhelming—for her patients, … Read more

Caring for the Caregivers Post-Pandemic

Since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was first officially declared, doctors, nurses and other clinicians have stepped up and shouldered burdens they never anticipated. They rose to the challenge magnificently, caring for the ill while protecting themselves and their families. But their commitment to helping others has come, in many cases, at no small … Read more

Will Doctors Who Are Spreading COVID-19 Misinformation Ever Face Penalty?

Earlier this month, Dr. Rashid Buttar posted on Twitter that COVID-19 “was a planned operation” and shared an article alleging that most people who got vaccinated against the coronavirus would be dead by 2025. His tweets are a recent addition to a steady stream of spurious claims about the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Another example … Read more

Some Vaping Companies Are Turning to Synthetic Nicotine to Outsmart the FDA

Troy Johnston swears he wanted to play by the rules. Johnston, who owns the Texas-based vaping company VaporSalon, tried to follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) guidelines for selling e-cigarette products, which required all manufacturers to file paperwork known as premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) by Sept. 9, 2020. In these applications, companies … Read more

FDA Panel Recommends Against Following White House Plan for Booster Doses for All

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee voted unanimously Friday to recommend booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for those over age 65 and those at higher risk of exposure to the virus, including healthcare, frontline and essential workers, under emergency use authorization, but stopped short of recommending boosters for the general population. (Boosters … Read more