A few readers have criticized WC and the Magpie Principle because, by definition, the Magpie Principle rarely involves doing any in-depth analysis on the potpourri of topics WC writes about. Mostly, that’s fair criticism, but occasionally an issue gets WC worked up enough that, after WC calms down enough to write coherently – to the…
Tick season is about to start. Ticks in Idaho spread among other diseases, West Nile virus, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, tick-borne relapsing fever and tularemia. Lyme disease gets all the press, but so far the tick species that transmits Lyme disease, Western Blacklegged Tick, is found only in North Idaho. Still who wants a blood-sucking…
A few readers have criticized WC and the Magpie Principle because, by definition, the Magpie Principle rarely involves doing any in-depth analysis on the potpourri of topics WC writes about. Mostly, that’s fair criticism, but occasionally an issue gets WC worked up enough that, after WC calms down enough to write coherently – to the…
A few readers have criticized WC and the Magpie Principle because, by definition, the Magpie Principle rarely involves doing any in-depth analysis on the potpourri of topics WC writes about. Mostly, that’s fair criticism, but occasionally an issue gets WC worked up enough that, after WC calms down enough to write coherently – to the…
WC had his second knee surgery on October 6. This report probably tells you more about it than you wanted to know, and be warned that it does get a little gruesome. But here’s what was done and why. As WC previously reported, his orthopedic surgeon’s diagnosis was that the articular cartilage on the back…
Or, WC versus his Right Knee, Round II As many readers may know, most joints in the human body are cushioned with a tough, rubbery tissue called articular cartilage. The back of the kneecap, the patella, is among those cushioned joints and is the joint in which the articular cartilage fails most often. As the…
Apollo Global Management is a private equity firm. Long-time readers know WC despises private equity firms. Former U.S. Presidential candidate and current U.S. Senator Mitt Romney made himself a rich man through his association with private equity. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that private equity is a legal way of looting and…
The Idaho Legislature, through two badly drafted, inconsistent laws, has effectively criminalized all forms of abortion in the Gem State, even to save the life of the mother. The legislators have also criminalized a doctor’s recommendation to a pregnant patient to seek an abortion in another state, where the laws might be more sensible. All…
Scientific American, in an article dated October 2, 1869 – that’s not a typo – discussed the arsenic eaters of Styria, which today is a state in Austria. Apparently, there were individuals in Styria who consumed small doses of arsenic trioxide – ratsbane – in the belief that it would protect them from all diseases.…
Three physicians, two from Washington and one from Idaho, face discipline proceedings by the Washington Medical Commission for gross misconduct during the COVID pandemic. Utterly reprehensible lies about COVID vaccines, the efficacy of face masks and the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment for the disease. Drs. Cole, Wilkerson and Eggleston allegedly killed their patients…
The American health care system is ill. Life expectancy among Americans is declining; in 1980, Americans lived about as long as other developed countries. Today, we’ve slipped to 11th. It isn’t just that Americans aren’t living longer; our lives are getting shorter. It’s not just the poor who are pulling life expectancy down. Even among…
The Idaho Legislature is engaged in a Holy War against abortion. And the thing about letting religious zealots have their way is that, blinded by their holy mission to deny women control of their own bodies, they lose sight of the consequences of their actions. That’s what’s happening in Idaho now. The Idaho Legislature has…
This is an immensely complex area of medicine. WC is not a virologist or an immunologist, although he has read fairly widely in those fields. Additionally, to make this discussion manageable, WC has necessarily simplified but not, WC hopes, over-simplified. WC’s recent post on two Idaho legislators’ effort to block use of all mRNA vaccines…
Probably forty years ago now, WC was defending a permafrost house case. (Notes for nor non-Alaskans: permafrost is permanently frozen soils, often laced with lenses of ice. When the permafrost melts, anything built on it is likely to collapse. If a house is built on permafrost, the results are often catastrophic. Because it can take…
In amazing abuse of America’s nonprofit laws, there’s a “charity” called “America’s Frontline Doctors” that consists of quacks, a small number of physicians and health care workers who are represent the very worst in American medicine. They spread false information about COVID, advocate for dangerous and discredited treatments, engage in fearmongering about vaccines, and attempt to influence…
WC had his follow up examination with his orthopedic surgeon recently, including follow up x-rays of the “appliance” now residing in WC’s right knee. At the risk of over-sharing, WC offers this update. These are iPhone photographs of the doctor’s computer screen, and aren’t ideal. WC and his phone are reflected in the background. You…
Give my feet to the footloose Careless, fancy free Give my knees to the needy Don’t pull that stuff on me — John Prine, “Please Don’t Bury Me,” 1973 WC’s right knee is a train wreck. After an October 2021 MRI, the radiologist described WC’s right meniscus – the wad of cartilage that cushions the…
Readers already know that in 2021 the Republican Party had enthusiastically opposed every governmental effort to limit the casualties from the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s just part of what WC believes to be the Republicans’ tendency over the last few years to embrace policies and positions that are contrary to survival. WC will offer a few…
As we approach 900,000 Americans killed by COVID-19, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided the ongoing pandemic is not a safety or health issue, so the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can’t address the epidemic. It’s medical malpractice committed by a bunch of lawyers. What happened was President Biden directed the U.S. Occupational Safety and…
WC mentioned recently that blog posts here at Wickersham’s Conscience might be interrupted by a surgical procedure. Many of you took time to wish WC well, and a speedy recovery. WC appreciates and thanks you for those thoughts. Even more of you wanted to know what was going on. The short answer is that WC’s…
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R, Texas), a man on the shortlist for Most Embarrassingly Ignorant Man in America, recently tweeted: Background: Big Bird, the iconic Sesame Street character, has been urging children get vaccinations since at least 1972. Big Bird’s tweet last week about the recently-approved COVID-19 vaccination for children was just the most recent…
There are two recent studies, one out of Michigan and a more recent one out of Iowa, showing that White-tailed Deer in those states have high levels of antibodies for COVID-19. That strongly implies a human-to-deer jump of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in humans, SARS-CoV-2, as well as transmission between deer. In the Michigan…
WC, who is well past the 65-years old eligibility, has just received his Pfizer booster shot. It’s the socially responsible thing to do. Idaho hospitals don’t need any more patients, and WC’s aging immune system needed a hand to keep the evolving coronavirus at bay. Idaho’s vaccination rate remains at a miserable 41%. That’s the…
According to the Center for Disease Control, the C.D.C., the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 killed “about 675,000 in the United States” and about 50 million worldwide. It was the worst pandemic of the 20th Century, and one of the worst in American history. Not the worst any more. The COVID-19 pandemic has an official…
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal might be the most famous sustained pice of satire in the English language. But it provides the seed for a solution to the problem Idaho and other states are suffering as the Delta variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus packs our health care facilities with critically ill unvaccinated and unmasked citizens.…
David Donley is a member of the Municipality of Anchorage School Board. He’s also one of those politicians who won’t let niceties like procedural rules, common sense, truth, the public interest or simple decency get in the way of his public posturings. School bird member Donley, you see, objects to Anchorage students being required to…
WC understands that most folks refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19 don’t have rational reasons.1 But on the chance that facts can overcome irrational behavior and unreasoning fear, WC wants to point readers to the data. WC shares with Washington Post columnist Kate Cohen the faint hope that simple numbers can move people to get…
WC is 70 years old, and by reason of age, if nothing else, highly interested in remedies, or at least treatments, for COVID-19. So WC was pretty intrigued when the Food & Drug Administration approved Gilead Lab’s remdesivir (the brand name is Veklury). Remdesivir is a previously developed general anti-viral. The drug was run through three…
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Corona. Corona who? And that’s the point, isn’t it? The failure of the federal government – the failure by the Executive Branch of the federal government – to provide adequate coronavirus test kits in the face of the pandemic, means we don’t know who may be infected with the virus. Because…
It’s Remdesivir. It’s not a magic bullet. It doesn’t cure COVID-19. It’s certainly not a prophylactic for COVID-19 (although we can expect President Trump to claim it is). What it does do is reduce the amount of time for recovery. By about 30%, based on a limited clinical trial. Remdesivir was developed as a treatment…
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