The show brings public health into our shared cultural bloodstream and illustrates what's at stake when our health agencies are driven by politics, not science.
Your concluding paragraph is absolutely essential. mRNA technology has actually been around for a while but banning it altogether is absolutely foolish. mRNA vaccines are used in cancer research and have the potential to augment some cancer treatments. Sometimes unexpected results leads to new treatments and therapeutics not just in cancer treatments or treating pathogenic communicable diseases but other pathologies as well such as autoimmune diseases.
Exactly. The ability to rapidly get out effective vaccines with mRNA technology cannot be overstated. It's a game changer in infectious disease, if we can keep it.
Perfect column. Thank you so much. No medical doctors in our immediate family, but my Dad was a physicist and engineer who worked with Physicians in Denmark in the 80's on cures for cancer. Our daughter-in-law is an Epidemiologist who work on controlled testing for some of the original COVID 19 vaccines. After two episodes of cancer, my amazing daughter is alive and well thanks to the continuing efforts of Physicians and researchers to produce new treatments at an amazing rate, including the stunning abilities of robotic surgery. And I have had Rheumatoid Arthritis for 37 years. Most of that time suffering crippling damage to my larger joints, but given 11 years now of miraculous relief by the ever growing numbers of biologic drugs available.
None of us can know when we may need the intervention of modern medicine to save our lives or repair what is broken and sickened. Our family is very grateful to all of the wonderful, incredibly educated and experienced medical staff in hospitals, clinics, research laboratories and every doctor's office and pharmacy. And we have relied heavily on our Public Health Agencies throughout the country for advice and planning. Yet from the President's first term and the onset of COVID these public health agencies have been ridiculed, torn apart and devastated. This is incredibly sad and very dangerous We need to run this around now. And if you haven't see The Pitt, please watch. Shocking, sad, wonderful and very informative.
Everything you write strikes home. The Pitt was one medical show doctors could watch because they said it was true. Our hearts are sore for the millions of our citizens who are being led to believe lies about vaccines and so much else...so many of these folks don't have money and won't be able to have even the modicum of health care they receive now. Heart is sore.
Excellent commentary. I retired from NIH after decades spent in basic research, and I have been as horrified as Dr. Kass by the current anti-science direction of the Trump administration. We don't do this work for fame and fortune, but because we think it is essential to the well-being of our fellow humans.
I retired from medicine a year or so after the covid vaccines became available. I had long planned to retire then because my body couldn't take the demands of surgery any more. It took me a while to have the courage to watch "The Pitt" because I didn't want to be re-traumatized. Our health care system has long been broken, but now it slips into the dark ages. 50 years ago my father, a research scientist, lamented that it was so tiresome to try to counter the evolution-denying creationists, a sentiment that seems quaint now that the stakes of science denial are so much higher for our health and the health of the planet.
Thank you for your piece on the our health care crisis. I believe this warrants many articles, perhaps weekly articles to address all the issues. As a retired intensive care nurse, I was horrified what happened during the pandemic and the way the Trump administration handled it. I mourned for the health care workers who I knew would suffer PTSD and never be the same. The loss of life was devastating. I still worry all the time for my daughters and grandchildren. Access to specialized care is difficult. There are not enough doctors or nurses, especially outside any large city. Why aren’t universities graduating and training more medical professionals? Why do we allow our health care to be for profit at the detriment of patients? A good friend of mine is a neonatologist and the company who runs that hospital group is thousands of miles away! They don’t care about the doctors or the patients. The stories he tells me are infuriating. He hates his job, but he is a decent man who can’t bring himself to quit because he cares about his coworkers and the sick babies. Why don’t people care about others until they or a loved one experience a problem first hand? Almost every person will need medical care in their lifetime, but too many people seem to enjoy gambling with their lives.
Excellent post. Yes, the moral injury is real, and it's been getting steadily worse. More and more physicians and nurses have said that they will leave healthcare completely within the next 2-3 years. Who will take care of everyone? Humans are not all widgets on an assembly line who are identical, so cookbook medicine doesn't work. Nor is AI ready to replace your doctors.
Thank you! I love this show and I do NOT watch medical dramas. This one is so authentic and real. Any doc (or any front line healthcare worker) who worked/lived through Covid or AIDS (as I did) and watched the dismantling of our healthcare system...feels it. It wasn't great in the 1980s. This show is the word.
Your concluding paragraph is absolutely essential. mRNA technology has actually been around for a while but banning it altogether is absolutely foolish. mRNA vaccines are used in cancer research and have the potential to augment some cancer treatments. Sometimes unexpected results leads to new treatments and therapeutics not just in cancer treatments or treating pathogenic communicable diseases but other pathologies as well such as autoimmune diseases.
Exactly. The ability to rapidly get out effective vaccines with mRNA technology cannot be overstated. It's a game changer in infectious disease, if we can keep it.
Perfect column. Thank you so much. No medical doctors in our immediate family, but my Dad was a physicist and engineer who worked with Physicians in Denmark in the 80's on cures for cancer. Our daughter-in-law is an Epidemiologist who work on controlled testing for some of the original COVID 19 vaccines. After two episodes of cancer, my amazing daughter is alive and well thanks to the continuing efforts of Physicians and researchers to produce new treatments at an amazing rate, including the stunning abilities of robotic surgery. And I have had Rheumatoid Arthritis for 37 years. Most of that time suffering crippling damage to my larger joints, but given 11 years now of miraculous relief by the ever growing numbers of biologic drugs available.
None of us can know when we may need the intervention of modern medicine to save our lives or repair what is broken and sickened. Our family is very grateful to all of the wonderful, incredibly educated and experienced medical staff in hospitals, clinics, research laboratories and every doctor's office and pharmacy. And we have relied heavily on our Public Health Agencies throughout the country for advice and planning. Yet from the President's first term and the onset of COVID these public health agencies have been ridiculed, torn apart and devastated. This is incredibly sad and very dangerous We need to run this around now. And if you haven't see The Pitt, please watch. Shocking, sad, wonderful and very informative.
Thank you Dr. Kass for speaking up.
Everything you write strikes home. The Pitt was one medical show doctors could watch because they said it was true. Our hearts are sore for the millions of our citizens who are being led to believe lies about vaccines and so much else...so many of these folks don't have money and won't be able to have even the modicum of health care they receive now. Heart is sore.
Excellent commentary. I retired from NIH after decades spent in basic research, and I have been as horrified as Dr. Kass by the current anti-science direction of the Trump administration. We don't do this work for fame and fortune, but because we think it is essential to the well-being of our fellow humans.
Thank you.
I retired from medicine a year or so after the covid vaccines became available. I had long planned to retire then because my body couldn't take the demands of surgery any more. It took me a while to have the courage to watch "The Pitt" because I didn't want to be re-traumatized. Our health care system has long been broken, but now it slips into the dark ages. 50 years ago my father, a research scientist, lamented that it was so tiresome to try to counter the evolution-denying creationists, a sentiment that seems quaint now that the stakes of science denial are so much higher for our health and the health of the planet.
The Pitt is the best show currently on television.
Thank you for your piece on the our health care crisis. I believe this warrants many articles, perhaps weekly articles to address all the issues. As a retired intensive care nurse, I was horrified what happened during the pandemic and the way the Trump administration handled it. I mourned for the health care workers who I knew would suffer PTSD and never be the same. The loss of life was devastating. I still worry all the time for my daughters and grandchildren. Access to specialized care is difficult. There are not enough doctors or nurses, especially outside any large city. Why aren’t universities graduating and training more medical professionals? Why do we allow our health care to be for profit at the detriment of patients? A good friend of mine is a neonatologist and the company who runs that hospital group is thousands of miles away! They don’t care about the doctors or the patients. The stories he tells me are infuriating. He hates his job, but he is a decent man who can’t bring himself to quit because he cares about his coworkers and the sick babies. Why don’t people care about others until they or a loved one experience a problem first hand? Almost every person will need medical care in their lifetime, but too many people seem to enjoy gambling with their lives.
Excellent post. Yes, the moral injury is real, and it's been getting steadily worse. More and more physicians and nurses have said that they will leave healthcare completely within the next 2-3 years. Who will take care of everyone? Humans are not all widgets on an assembly line who are identical, so cookbook medicine doesn't work. Nor is AI ready to replace your doctors.
Beautifully written and I totally agree. This show is the real real.
Thank you! I love this show and I do NOT watch medical dramas. This one is so authentic and real. Any doc (or any front line healthcare worker) who worked/lived through Covid or AIDS (as I did) and watched the dismantling of our healthcare system...feels it. It wasn't great in the 1980s. This show is the word.