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Merry Christmas

I’ve always enjoyed those newsletters some send for Christmas. This year, I decided to create my own. 2021 I’ve always enjoyed receiving these Christmas letters from those who bother to write them. So this year I’m trying my hand at it, seeing if I can bore you silly with recountings of some of the anticsContinue reading “Merry Christmas”

Christmas plug

Still shameless. I’ve just sent Jeff Bezos Musing through a Pandemic. On the Sidelines. Volume IV. Then play on. This grew out of a discovery that all the posts on sports I’d intended to include in Volume III. Indulgences didn’t make it in. I added the few more I’d written since June and presto, aContinue reading “Christmas plug”

flu

“Not the Bee” circulated a government document containing excellent advice about what to do in a viral pandemic. The document is from the Division of Sanitation of the Department of the Navy. It concerns what to do in the face of the Spanish Flu, which in 1918 infected 500 million people or one-third of theContinue reading “flu”

0-micron don’t worry, be happy

I’m usually not one to post extensive work from someone else. But this piece addresses concerns about the new variant (1). Bottom line, it isn’t even going to be very infectious. Prior vaccines aren’t going to help much. Boosters are nonsense and probably dangerous by instigation of antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) (2) Here’s the post:Continue reading “0-micron don’t worry, be happy”

12 days

For those of you who are not regular readers of Lucianne.com, behold: Let’s all have a Merry Christmas in spite of it all, and remember (and observe) the real 12 days ( 1). Reference Ike B. Dandy Dozen. Word Press December 25, 2020. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/12/25/dandy-dozen/

buckeyes!

Kathy’s classes today will be special. Not just because her students haven’t seen her in person since she fell ill with influenza A Sunday before last, and not just because this will be her last class of the term. But today she’s bringing ‘em a treat, something she whipped up yesterday. No, it’s not aContinue reading “buckeyes!”

on ties

To church on a morning last year before the first shutdown, I wore a tie, the once daily obligation for work that is now a rare treat in retirement. Among the 240 or so of our still rather conservative congregation in attendance, only 8 guys sported neckwear, including me and the young visiting pastor. AllContinue reading “on ties”

o-no

So the latest player on the world coronavirus stage is B.1.1.529 (1). The B.1.1. traces its genetic lineage directly to the original Wuhan strain. The WHO, continuing its practice of assigning a Greek letter to the isolate had to go through some contortions. Delta had been followed by 8 variants, all of which fizzled out. Continue reading “o-no”

ADE

I haven’t written about coronavirus for quite a while. The sturm und drang over the vaxx has reached baroque levels. Ample evidence is out there that it’s not providing much protection against whatever strains are floating around now, all multiply mutated beyond the original Wuhan variant. Highest new infection rates are in states and countriesContinue reading “ADE”

flea in the O.R.

The manuscript of this recent musing about perhaps the most important component of my career in rheumatology was just accepted for publication in Clinical Medicine, after being rejected by a surgical journal. Sometimes those blades just can’t take a joke. For you outsiders: blades are surgeons, for obvious reasons, whereas we internists, with our focusContinue reading “flea in the O.R.”