Episode 149: Is Asymptomatic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 a Thing? with Daniel Halperin, PhD
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Release Date: 10/22/2021
Episode 154: Rethinking Vaccine Mandates and the Omicron Variant with Dr. Monica Gandhi
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...
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Episode 153: Crowd Health is Go Fund Me for Health Care on Nitro with CEO Andy Schoonover
The 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...
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Episode 152: The COVID Drawdown
The 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...
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Episode 151: Health Care for Those Who Don't Earn High Wages with Dr. David Berg
The 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...
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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...
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Episode 149: Is Asymptomatic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 a Thing? with Daniel Halperin, PhD
The 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...
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Episode 148: Urgent Care as Primary Care with Dr. Juliet Breeze of Next Level Medical
The 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...
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Episode 147: Has the Pandemic Led to Infants Losing IQ? - with Sean Deoni, PhD
The 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...
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Episode 146: Explaining COVID in 11 Minutes with Dr. Eric Larson
The 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...
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Episode 145: Surgery without Insurance with Dr. Keith Smith
The 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_outlineNot 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 here, here, and here.
12 Myths and 12 Facts About COVID-19
If there is one certainty during this confusing pandemic it is that there are plenty of myths circulating in the media and popular culture about COVID. In fact, many of the things we think we know are wrong. Public officials get them wrong. Doctors and nurses get them wrong. The CDC and FDA get them wrong. Unfortunately, once we discover the truth, often the word doesn't get out there widely enough to change behavior, regulations, or rituals. Dan Halperin points these out in his book on 12 common myths and 12 uncommon facts about COVID-19.
One great example of this is the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces. We have almost no instances of the virus transmitting in this manner and it travels almost exclusively through aerosol means. However, despite this, businesses, individuals, and regulatory agencies still act as if 'deep cleaning' and intense adherence to eliminating surface contamination will help prevent viral transmission. This is patently false but it's been over a year since we have known this and yet we are still wasting our time practicing this type of hygiene.
Another example of a myth believed by many is the transfer of viral particles from asymptomatic individuals to uninfected people. There are almost no documented cases of this type of infection yet we treat asymptomatic infection almost as a common vector. It is important to note that there is pre-symptomatic spread but people who never develop any symptoms just aren't infectious. It is also true that you never know if you're about to become symptomatic but we could certainly change the way we approach close contacts if the infected person never develops any symptoms.
Is the Current Environment of Scientific Debate Akin to McCarthyism?
Not only has Dan Halperin written on the epidemiology of COVID but he has also weighed in on his concerns with the academic and public nature of scientific debate. He notes how one of the creators of the mRNA technology expressed some "strange views" which many did not agree with. But instead of rebutting the researcher's concerns, he was virtually eliminated from history. His contribution to the development of mRNA technology was removed from Wikipedia and he has been eliminated from all common public forums.
Dr. Halperin says it feels a little like McCarthyism which happened in the 1950's over concern that the Soviet Union and communists were infiltrating American government and society. At the time, most Americans were in favor of the practice of 'blackballing' people because of the perceived threat of nuclear annihilation from our Cold War adversary. Only through the lens of time can we now look back and find the practice objectionable and he suspects the same will be the case with our current lack of public acceptance of differing opinions on COVID.
Daniel Halperin is an epidemiologist and full professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and the author of the book: Facing COVID without Panic: 12 common myths and 12 lesser known facts about the pandemic. show notes
Episode 149: Today's show
Creeping Censorship in the Name of Public Health: Dr. Halperin's piece in the Real Clear Policy where he discusses the squelching of real discussion in science.
Episode 134: Dr. Bhattacharya on the erosion of discourse in science.
Episode 143: Dr. Graham and I review how were were so right about COVID back in April of 2020.
Episode 146: COVID policy and what it should be summed up in 11 minutes.
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