Thoughtless, or selfish, that is the question. posted on 2020-04-08
Shakespeare once wrote, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Today, we must ask a different question: “Are people thoughtless, or are they simply selfish?” Despite orders for social distancing and self-isolation to mitigate transmission of COVD-19 in virtually every country, crowds continue to gather in public places, shop in large numbers, [Read More]
Overcoming Uncertainty posted on 2020-04-07
A few days ago, Andreas Voss, the President of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, posted an advisory1 stating the controversial paper published in IJAA on the favorable effects of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in patients with COVID-19 infection2 did not meet the journal’s scientific standards. Meanwhile, countless physicians on the frontlines prescribe these drugs. Many also prescribe [Read More]
Whatever it takes posted on 2020-04-05
Monitoring WhatsApp posts from more than 7000 physicians in 60 countries is disheartening. Lack of personal protective equipment(PPE), the propagation of contradictory or obviously false information by administrative leaders, unclear instructions, and orders to refrain from sharing information about triage, the poor availability of isolation rooms, ventilators, negative pressure procedure suites, and PPE do not [Read More]
English is the new latin posted on 2020-01-18
I cannot help but admire foreign language-speaking colleagues who are able to write, lecture, study and teach in English. Since the increasing economic and political power of the United States, the results of two world wars and the declining international presence of a postcolonial Europe, English became the major language of science and medicine. Earlier [Read More]
Artificial Intelligence Moving Forward posted on 2019-10-26
It took thirty years (1967-1997) for computer chess programs to defeat world champion players, but it was only eight years (2009-2017) before DeepMind’s AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie, the world’s premier Go player. Video games like Starcraft are harder for computers to play than board games such as chess or Go, but after only 18 months [Read More]