Making Sense of Medical Science (MSMS)

A medical scientist explains medical news for lay people

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Steve Clark, PhD is a retired university professor with a PhD in immunology and a past Special Fellow of the Leukemia Society of America. Clark has published dozens of papers based on his research and holds two drug patents. He taught medical and graduate students about cancer biology and genetics, and about research ethics. He also directed an NIH-funded PhD Graduate Program and chaired several executive-level faculty committees. Clark served on the University Chancellor’s Speaker’s Bureau. While retired, Clark has been blogging on the COVID pandemic, which is the subject of his next book.

Category: clinical trials

  • Vying With Viral Variants

    What is a world to do? Besides increasing surveillance of viral variants, a couple more prevention initiatives are in the works. One is economic and the other scientific.

  • Vaccine Disinformation

    There is a lot of misinformation and downright disinformation out there regarding face masks, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, the seriousness of COVID-19, etc. Many of these I already addressed in prior posts (see here and here). In this post, I focus solely on vaccine misinformation and disinformation in hopes my unvarnished explanation of the science might help…

  • In The Midst Of The Vaccine Frenzy, Let’s Not Forget Drugs

    All of this begs two questions; why would vaccines be needed if we had an effective anti-viral drug, and why would a drug be needed if we had an effective vaccine?

  • One Shot Is Effective And The Vax Does Not Need To Be Stored At Ultra-Cold Temperatures

    The mRNA Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech generates robust immunity 2-4 weeks after one dose and can be stored in ordinary freezers instead of at ultracold temperatures as previously believed

  • Some People Worry About The Vaccines Because They Were Developed So Quickly

    A poll published by Gallup in early August found that 35% of surveyed Americans would decline a Covid-19 shot offered to them at no cost. I have seen other studies that say 50% of Americans will not get the vaccine. And on social media sites I have seen discussion and comments about why folks are…

  • A Third Vaccine Also Shows Success!

    Now, a third and different type of two-shot vaccine developed by the UK’s AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford also reports 90% efficacy. It also showed minimal adverse effects that are expected from the immune reaction to any vaccine.

  • Pfizer Applies For FDA Approval

    Pfizer announced that today it will seek approval for its anti-CoV-2 vaccine.

  • Great News On The CoV-2 Vaccine Front

    The news: Pharma giant, Pfizer, and its German biotech partner, BioNTech, just announced that preliminary indications show that its two-shot anti-CoV-2 vaccine is 90% effective in preventing infection. The study is not yet complete, meaning that this is based on what is called interim data analysis. All large scale clinical trials schedule such interim analysis…

  • Trump’s Treatment

    Being, male, elderly (74 years old), and borderline clinically obese, Trump meets two high-risk criteria for severe COVID-19 disease. Despite reporting negligible symptoms, his doctors at Walter Reed have him on aggressive precautionary therapeutic measures.

  • Science vs Nonscience In Understanding Hydroxychloroquine

    So far, the reports claiming that HCQ is effective against COVID-19 are mostly based on unsubstantiated doctor’s anecdotes, or on uncontrolled retrospective chart reviews. In contrast, the reports that indicate that HCQ is ineffective are based on stronger randomized and controlled clinical trials.