Episode 085: The Nonsensical Response to the Coronavirus Outbreak
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Release Date: 04/11/2020
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Vaccine mandates, mask mandates, boosters, and variants have been a constant source of debate and controversy with the pandemic. My guest today is Dr. Monica Gandhi, an expert in immunology and infectious disease who runs the HIV clinic at UCSF. She has been a fairly prominent voice in support of the mask and vaccine mandates in her home state of California and city of San Francisco. She returns from her visit in June for SARS-CoV-2 in which she guessed that it wouldn't evade the vaccine or prior infection (spoiler alert: she was right). Do Vaccine Mandates Make Sense? Dr. Gandhi is...
info_outline Episode 153: Crowd Health is Go Fund Me for Health Care on Nitro with CEO Andy SchoonoverThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
What happens when you take Go Fund Me and put it into an ecosystem of likeminded folks who want to build a community to care for each other's health care expenses? You get which draws upon some of the concepts of crowd funding for one time health care expenses within its community. By taking people from all over the country and putting them into a community where there are expectations of caring for others, Crowd Health offers a solution to paying for health care expenses without breaking the bank. Is Crowd Health Insurance? If you've been paying attention to the US health care...
info_outline Episode 152: The COVID DrawdownThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Today we are going to discuss the COVID drawdown. Essentially, this is what must inevitably happen for us to return to lives of normalcy where we have typical interactions with others at family gatherings, sporting events, concerts, and business meetings. Unless we are prepared to radically change the way we live our lives and choose isolation (which probably has far greater physical and mental health detriments) then we have to consider how the drawdown occurs and what conditions ned to be present for it to happen. What HaS TO HAPPEN FOR THE DRAWDOWN TO OCCUR? We've talked to...
info_outline Episode 151: Health Care for Those Who Don't Earn High Wages with Dr. David BergThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
One of the scariest times for many workers is being presented with a bill for medical services. Even if they have insurance "coverage", the deductible or co-pay might be more than they can afford. For hourly workers in entry level jobs or low skilled positions, medical bankruptcy is a real fear. While barely making ends meet an additional bill for an ER visit or doctor's office stop can send you to collections and destroy your credit. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in this exact spot as they earn a living working these low paying jobs but have little medical security even if...
info_outline Episode 150: Make Sure Your Health Insurance Broker is Working for You and not the Insurance Company with David Contorno.The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
When you run a business, one person you usually meet and hire is a health insurance broker. In theory, these brokers work with the employers to secure the best deals for health insurance to meet the company's health care objectives. However, in practice, the brokers serve as a sales force for the insurance companies who lavish them with bonuses, trips, and gifts. The seedy underbelly of the health insurance broker industry is that they are really not working to save money or get deals for their clients - the checks are written by the insurance carriers and that's who they answer to. Who do...
info_outline Episode 149: Is Asymptomatic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 a Thing? with Daniel Halperin, PhDThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Not only has the COVID pandemic politicized our country - it has led to a lot of misinformation and a shutdown of communication. For instance, is there really asymptomatic spread of COVID? Or just pre-symptomatic and symptomatic spread? That might seem like splitting hairs but it can have a profound effect on policy for quarantining and testing. We've talked about this before on the show as well as general discussions on COVID policy which can be found , , and . 12 Myths and 12 Facts About COVID-19 If there is one certainty during this confusing pandemic it is that there are plenty of...
info_outline Episode 148: Urgent Care as Primary Care with Dr. Juliet Breeze of Next Level MedicalThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
There are a lot of urgent care clinics all over the country. But few of them, to my knowledge, also operate as regular primary care clinics. But that is exactly what is happening today in the Houston, Texas area with the emergence of Next Level Medical. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense to leverage all the facilities needed for a primary care clinic - exam rooms, physicians, etc. and use it to deliver regular and sometimes non-urgent care. We've discussed before that lower the cost of care with transparency so this seems like the next logical step with urgent care. We...
info_outline Episode 147: Has the Pandemic Led to Infants Losing IQ? - with Sean Deoni, PhDThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
The COVID pandemic has brought on all sorts of changes to the way we live our lives. From wearing masks, working from home, stay at home orders, and restrictions on social interactions, the virus has caused untold disruption to the way our society functions. Although the changes COVID has brought to our schools and the lives of our school age children, it is perhaps less appreciated what changes have occurred for our infants. It is a well known fact that our environment and meaningful stimulation is necessary for normal intelligence and brain development. Infants are completely...
info_outline Episode 146: Explaining COVID in 11 Minutes with Dr. Eric LarsonThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Imagine yourself in California at a clearing in a large forest. And it’s on fire. There are three groups of people standing before you. A large group is screaming and running around pointing at the fire. They’re yelling that we need to do something, anything we can to stop the fire. Meanwhile, there is another group (not as large) with their backs to the fire. They are mocking and ridiculing the group running around panicking. They tell them to calm down and to stop ordering people around. They insist there isn’t anything wrong at all. Of course, the largest group of people are...
info_outline Episode 145: Surgery without Insurance with Dr. Keith SmithThe Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
A lot has happened since we last met with Dr. Keith Smith from the back in 2018. . We also spoke about how the system was rigged to enrich the hospital systems, insurance carriers, and PBMs (what's new right?). So what's happened since then and how has the center done with the pandemic? Is the Surgery Center of Oklahoma Thriving or Just Surviving? Not surprisingly, Dr. Smith says that the center is doing just fine and has increased its market share from other states. Additionally, the international community from Canada is now being allowed to come back into the US for their...
info_outlineThe response from state governments in the United States have varied in how they are responding to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). My home state of Michigan has been in a state of emergency for weeks with it now extending through the end of the month. Our governor, has now made the restrictions in what the government deems "allowed" more draconian in the face of no evidence that there is any benefit. This is not to say that there is no risk to resources or people from the virus - simply that we need to truly consider the differences within the state and the real tradeoffs occurring of wrecking businesses and jobs and the effects that will have on our health too.
In fact, many of the rules added to the increased restrictions are simply an affront to our personal and economic freedoms with no regard to health policy. For instance, the advertising of anything that is not deemed essential will be illegal beginning on Monday, April 13 (order 12-D-3). I am not sure how that is even permissible, enforceable, or how it pertains to public safety in any way. There is even some dispute about whether you can operate a motorboat which can't get within a hundred feet of another human being. Our governor seems to enjoy dictatorial powers.
What should the governor of Michigan do? Here's a more sensible list:
- Allow counties and communities to establish their own guidelines to the shuttering of businesses. This might mean restricting patrons based on what counties they live. The state can provide advice for good practices, recommendations, and data to help them make decisions.
- Establish clear goals and the exit strategy for when the easing of restrictions will begin. Perhaps this is a decline in positive diagnoses, or deaths, or something related to testing results. We need this to know if we are making progress and give people some idea how much longer the restrictions will be in place.
- Make mitigation (limiting the spread) of the disease your number one concern. Rules are established only with that one goal in mind.
- Make recommendations for the use of masks, travel, hand washing, best practices for Michiganders to stay safe and healthy.
- Limit social gathering where applicable. This would be best done on a local level but the state could establish rules for extremely large gatherings like concerts or sporting events.
- End arbitrary rules that have no effect on the spread of disease. These would include advertising restrictions, allowing solo run businesses that have minimal contact with people (a landscaper, tree trimmer, etc.) to still work, and no cordon off sections of stores.
- Tell those who are most vulnerable to protect themselves, stay home, and find ways to be extra cautious.
- Rethink the regulatory framework in the state that hamper our ability to have enough supplies, hospital beds, etc. An example would be ending Certificate of Need laws which allow competitors in a market to decide if someone else can enter to compete.