Among my fondest childhood memories are the hours my family spent discussing B cells and T cells while cruising the highways on our family car camping trips. My mother, Irene Check, is a scientist; both she and my father got their doctoral degrees in microbiology, and my mother has a specialty in immunology – the […]
medicine
This week, an FDA panel unanimously voted to revoke its approval of Avastin (bevacizumab) for breast cancer. The decision evoked cheers from some groups and jeers from others. At least one group derided the decision as the work of a “death panel.” Initially hailed as a wonder drug, Avastin is a monoclonal antibody first approved […]
I’m probably not the only one who has noticed a shift in the way we talk about health care these days. It’s no longer about patients taking the advice of their doctors. It’s about “consumers” making “choices” about care. We’re shifting away from the old model of medicine, in which doctors guided medical decisions because […]
Last fall, ninth-grader Jordan McFarland received a jab of seasonal flu vaccine and the vaccine to prevent pandemic H1N1 virus. The next day, he got a bad headache and the chills. His muscles began to spasm and shake. He couldn’t walk. One of the people working at Jordan’s after-school daycare called 911. He was diagnosed […]