Omicron by the numbers
Quantifying this year’s least popular holiday guest.
Dr. Craig Bowron
Dr. Craig Bowron is a Twin Cities internist and writer.
What to know about molnupiravir, the COVID pill that could be coming to a pharmacy near you
An FAQ about the first treatment for COVID that can be taken at home, as a pill.
What to know about long-haul COVID
It goes by a number of different names: long COVID, long-haul COVID or, per the CDC, “Post-COVID conditions.” Whatever you call it, it’s bad news.
An aspirin a day is no longer recommended for most adults. So what should you do?
New guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force are once again taking an axe to the often-heard health axiom: “An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away.”
On digesting the latest pandemic news — and the perils of nuanced public health messaging
Prior claims of vaccine efficacy came from the pre-delta era. When delta rode into town in late May, everything changed. So we need to change.
How a kid from Crookston became an authority on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre
For Tim Madigan, the journey began in 2000 when he was writing for the Fort-Worth Star Telegram. He traveled to Tulsa to write a piece for the paper, work that would lead to his 2001 book “The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.”
Beyond COVID: Journal Watch’s top medical stories of 2020, explained
Think of it like the Grammys, except there are no acceptance speeches, bold fashion statements, or entertainment — unless you find research statistics to be entertaining.
This Thanksgiving, go for the stuffing — and skip the COVID-shaming
We all have choices to make about how we live our lives, and how healthy we are. But let’s agree that no one deserves to get COVID.
From Gates to Osterholm: The coronavirus was actually expected
It wasn’t fringy conspiracy theory bloggers who were sounding the pandemic alarm. It was some of the best and brightest people on the planet, including Bill Gates.
How can an asymptomatic person still spread the coronavirus?
If it doesn’t make sense to you that a person can have enough virus in his or her body to be able to spread the infection, but not enough to feel ill, you’re not alone. It doesn’t make sense, but there is an explanation.
A COVID-19 primer: How viruses work and spread
Viruses are complicated, and epidemics even more so, but if you understand the basics of how a virus works and spreads, the more complicated details will make sense.
Same plot, different props: Radicalization then and now
Let’s use some of what we’ve learned in the last century to foil both the plot and the props.
There will be blood: Minnesota’s state bird — the mosquito — is living large in 2014
“What we had this spring was a whole bunch of snowmelt pools, which led to a whole bunch of snowmelt pool-exploiting mosquito species,” says mosquito and tick expert David Neitzel.
Fungal meningitis: How a wimpy, ubiquitous black mold turned to the dark side
Exserohilum rostratum is the scary character responsible for the multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis cases linked to tainted steroid preparations.
