I own a home in California near a major earthquake fault. As a result, I cannot purchase traditional earthquake insurance to protect our home against its catastrophic loss. My house, in effect, has a pre-existing condition.

During his term in office, President Trump signed several executive orders requiring transparency in hospital pricing. Those orders were supposed to have gone into effect in January 2021. But if they did there is very little evidence that they have been implemented or are now benefiting America’s population.

In 1986, the United States Congress authorized the national Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) to respond to adverse reactions to vaccinations. The program was designed as a no-fault alternative to settling disputes in place of a traditional tort process. 

We are all very aware of how stress, poor nutrition, restless sleep, and a lack of exercise can adversely affect the status of our health. What is less commonly known is how our bodies can heal themselves from the abuse we inflict upon them. The problem is that we always seem to focus on what is wrong with us rather than on how to remedy the hurt before it does too much damage.

An 8-year-old boy came into my office the other day. He sat on the examination table while his father waited in an adjacent chair. The boy had a mask on — you know the type, home-made with a cute design on the front; his father had no mask. 

In medicine we often use the abbreviation PRN, the initial letters of the Latin phrase “Pro Re Nata.” The English translation of this is “As Things Stand.” It signals a moment to pause, to sum up, to take stock of an ongoing matter. It’s a good practice for public policy issues as well as medicine.

They tell us we must stay in our houses and only leave if we have essential business. They tell us we should not gather with family or friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, weddings, funerals, the birth of a child, or any other traditional and important event. They tell us we cannot eat at a restaurant, send our kids to school, worship at church, or shop at a local small business. 

“Put your damn mask on” said a guy three seats behind me on a Southwest Airline flight heading to Washington, DC to the passenger walking down the aisle. His mask had slid downunder his nose as he negotiated his carry-on bag while holding his little daughter’s hand.

Today, students not only receive a free education at public schools, but many are also entitled to a free breakfast and lunch as well as a host of after school sports and enrichment programs. For many students, school also acts as an escape from difficult or even abusive situations at home while providing important adult relationships that serve them in later years.

She was alone in her room in the nursing home. For the past two months she had been receiving hospice care for heart failure and a chronic lung disease. Several years before, her family had made the decision to transfer her to the nursing home as her health care needs became unmanageable for the family. As a mother, grandmother, and sister, she had plenty of visitors — often several times a week and always on Sunday. She seemed happy. The staff at the nursing home was very attentive and the facility itself was clean, comfortable, even homey.

I heard this startling story from a patient the other day: “I got a phone call . . . telling me my Covid-19 test came back positive. But I never had the test done, I told the caller. I checked in and completed the paperwork but I left because the wait was too long. They never [actually] tested me.”

Our daily lives are filled with risks - lots of risks. Just look at these examples.

Chloroquine — a derivative of quinine, the extract of the bark of the cinchona tree — was developed in the 1930’s as an alternative for the treatment and prevention of malaria.

“Hydroxychloroquine is safer than aspirin which causes approximately 3,000 deaths annually.” - Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D.