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: Coronavirus

  • While SARS-CoV-2 And Our Immune Systems Do A Dance, We Get Re-Infected

    The natural immune response, like the vaccine immune response, is robust and effective, yet both are only directed against a very small portion of a big pathogen, and both are very leaky in that one can still get infected again! What gives?

  • The Virus Came From Wuhan Lab DOE Now Says…..Sort Of

    …the world has been abuzz with reports that the Department of Energy recently reported that it decided, albeit with low confidence, that the SARS-CoV-2 virus might have leaked by accident from the virology lab in Wuhan.

  • The Latest On Long COVID (So Far)

    some 16 million working age Americans now suffer from long COVID, which creates a huge burden on our health system. Up to 4 million of these are unable to work, which is a major drain on a labor market already short of workers. The annual cost in lost wages is up to $230 billion! The…

  • Are COVID And Cancer Connected?

    Research is now beginning to reveal a possible link between CoV-2 infection and cancer. As before, these observations are preliminary and will be further scrutinized, but they are bolstered by the discovery of a possible mechanism that could explain how the CoV-2 virus might cause cancer.

  • The Next Pandemic Is Here

    Clearly, not all pandemics are created equal. Some smolder like AIDS, others fulminate like COVID. What will our next pandemic be like?

  • Masks Redux

    The effectiveness of masks in schools is supported by many different studies and analyses that show similar results. There are more than a dozen studies beyond those cited here, that all point to the same conclusion: Masks work.

  • What Happened To The Flu And Other Respiratory Diseases?

    In this post, I present further data on how the mandates significantly reduced the incidence of other infectious respiratory diseases around the world. If the measures can reduce flu, then you can bet that they also reduced COVID-19.

  • A Single Gene Doubles Risk Of COVID Death

    British scientists recently identified an allele, or a version of a gene, that portends lung failure and death in COVID-19 patients.

  • Why Don’t The COVID Vaccines Last Longer?

    Are the vaccines not very good? After all, we get small pox or measles shots that last a lifetime. Others like the vax for tetanus lasts for ~10 years. Why can’t we get a more durable coronavirus vaccine?

  • “Mater Artium Necessitas”

    These PDMS-based passive samplers may serve as a useful exposure assessment tool for airborne viral exposure in real-world high-risk settings and allow early detection of potential cases and guidance on infection control.