“We have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day. And we’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion.” — President Biden, on the Omicron variant.
“As a first step, this is definitely good news.” — Gregor Kasprian, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, on a small MRI study finding mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19 during pregnancy didn’t hurt developing fetal brains.
“We have not finalized any plans for a booster study in this age group.” — Pfizer spokesperson Jerica Pitts regarding the company’s plan to test boosters for kids ages 12 to 15 in a clinical trial.
“People need to realize that it’s going to be around forever.” — Trevor Bedford, PhD, a virologist at Fred Hutch in Seattle, dispelling the notion of a post-COVID world.
“We still don’t know exactly how to make that decision.” — Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, on not yet knowing which patients with unresectable melanoma would see a survival time benefit with combination versus single-agent immunotherapy.
“[We would be] in the newspaper or on TV. It would be the nation’s doctors…the largest group of physicians in the country taking a stance on this issue.” — Raymond Lorenzoni, MD, a pediatric cardiologist from the Bronx in New York, on physicians leading the conversation on the climate crisis.
“Patients are still footing out-of-pocket costs, and it’s impacting screening.” — Allen Kamrava, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, on consumer cost-sharing for colonoscopies following an initial fecal test.
“[This study adds] to the growing body of research showing the health of the heart and brain are closely connected.” — Claire Sexton, DPhil, of the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, on how a higher resting heart rate was associated with an increased dementia risk and faster cognitive decline.
“Following recent news regarding detected benzene in many personal care aerosol spray products across the industry, we immediately began an investigation.” — Procter & Gamble, in response to its recent product recall.