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The Day a Republican Senator Stood Up For Democracy and Against a Malignant Bully. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee This past week, Trump’s posting of himself as The Pope surfaced once again David French’s classic Christmas, 2024, New York Times column titled “Why Are So Many Christians So Cruel?” As I wrote at the time, “French and his wife and three children have experienced the cruelty first hand since he openly expressed […]
“What would FDR do if faced with Trump and Vance and Musk?” - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Children of this era, decades from now, will recall a pandemic and their experiences with vaccines, in the same manner as citizens of my age recall the polio vaccine campaigns in the 1950’s. While my generation was less informed on the science than our counterparts today, we had three advantages: National administrative leadership […]
The Birth of Immunology - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The field of Immunology is little more than a half-century old and still shrouded in a remarkable degree of mystery. Even describing what we do know is a complex challenge. One way to proceed is to climb the scaffolding provided by the wide array of Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine over the […]
Pope Francis, Skadden, Scalia and "Due Process." - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.” ― St. Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Jesuit Order The Pope’s passing interrupted an epic battle between Trump and the rest of the civilized world over whether America remains a […]
The Birth of The Germ Theory - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee When Yellow Fever broke out shortly after the arrival of a trading ship from Saint-Dominque in Philadelphia among colonists with no immunity in 1793, the main response was panic, fear, and mass evacuation from the city. Five thousand citizens, roughly 10% of the population, including Alexander Hamilton and his wife, fled. Experts were […]
The Birth of The Sanitation Movement from "Dirty Old London" to NYC. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee I. Florence Nightengale and Sidney Herbert Order had always been part of Florence Nightingale’s life. Her father was William Edward Shore, a Country Squire, who at age 21 inherited his rich uncle’s huge fortune as well as his name. On his death, the younger (now) Nightingale, seamlessly managed the profits of the family’s […]
"Think Microscopically" - The Birth of Cell Theory. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee If there was an All-Star team for 20th Century Medicine, two members of the roster would likely be William Welch and William Osler, two of the “Big Four” founders of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. (The other two were surgeon William Stewart Halsted and obstetrician Howard Atwood Kelly.) Welch served as the […]
The Most Profitable Convenience Store Product? Caffeinated, but not coffee. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee If you enter a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts on any given day, it is more than likely that you will exit with roughly half the maximum recommended daily dosage of caffeine in a hot or cold coffee beverage. No surprise here. But you may be surprised to know that your caffeine hit is […]
The World's Most Widely Used Psychoactive Drug? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Question: What is the world’s most widely used psychoactive drug? Answer: Caffeine In the U.S., caffeine is consumed mainly in the form of coffee, tea, and cola. But coffee dominates. Worldwide, humans consume over 10 million tons of coffee beans a year. Roughly 16% (1.62 million tons) is devoured by Americans. The daily […]
Vital Signs Are Vital: How We Learned To Measure Blood Pressure. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee It has been estimated that a medical student learns approximately 15,000 new words during the four years of training. One of those words is sphygmomanometer. the fancy term for a blood pressure monitor. The word is derived from the Greek σφυγμός sphygmos “pulse”, plus the scientific term manometer (from French manomètre). While medical students are quick to memorize and […]
Do You Know Your Blood Type? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Medical Science has made remarkable progress over the past 100 years, fueled by basic scientific discoveries, advances in medical technology, improved diagnostic testing, and public health programming to support, inform, and empower patients. Progress has been sequential, with each new discovery and advance building on those preceding it. These have combined to lengthen lifespan in […]
Science as a Tool of Diplomacy. The Brief History of Balloon Angioplasty. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “Navigating Uncertainty: The recently announced limitation from the NIH on grants is an example that will significantly reduce essential funding for research at Emory.” Gregory L. Fenes, President, Emory University, March 5, 2025 In 1900, the U.S. life expectancy was 47 years. Between maternal deaths in child birth and infectious diseases, it is […]
A Tesla Divestiture. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Musk owns 13% of Tesla stock (valued at $120B) which accounts for 34% of his total wealth. His profiteering with Trump is obvious, visible, and accelerating. A Tesla Divestiture is the most likely way to “deliver us from evil” as it did with South African apartheid on April 27, 1994. Want to help? 3 easy […]
Trump and Musk: Finishing the Drama and Undressing the Actors. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “Chance made the situation; genius profited from it,’ says history. But what is chance? What is genius?” Leo Tolstoy from “War and Peace”, 1867. Trump’s deliberate melding of Elon Musk to himself has dominated the news cycle since his inauguration. There are many more questions than […]
Shocking: The Story of the AED in 2025. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The leaders of America’s scientific community seem genuinely surprised by the actions of the past three weeks. They expected to be spared the wrath of Trump because they believed that “Americans of all political persuasions have respect for science and celebrate its breakthroughs.” Maybe so. But that is an inadequate defense against a […]
Is Musk Writing His Own Super-Hero Story? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee A lot can happen in the blink of an eye. You can lose everything. Your name, your reputation. But they can be replaced… by determination, strength, empathy, faith… A renewed sense of how blessed you are just to be alive. To have people who love you, care for you, but that only happens […]
Is Disruption The Same As Innovation? Check “X” for No and “XX” for Yes. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “The technological leaps of the 1900s — microelectronics, antibiotics, chemotherapy, liquid-fueled rockets, Earth-observing satellites, lasers, LED lights, disease-resistant seeds and so forth — derived from science. But these technologies also spent years being improved, tweaked, recombined and modified to make them achieve the scale and impact necessary for innovations.” Jon Gertner, author of “The Idea […]
"House of Medicine v. Trump/Musk" . . . or not? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
In 2018, during Trump’s first assault on Medicine’s compassion, understanding and partnership, The House of Medicine stood tall. Will they this time around? Virginia Commonwealth University’s’s Steven H. Woolf MD, MPH asks that question today in JAMA. It deserves a careful read. January 31, 2025 How Should Health Care and Public Health Respond to the New US […]
"Fork" in America's Road. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
“On September 9, 1966, around 200 people gathered in the White House Rose Garden as President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Motor Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act. President Johnson told them that nearly three times as many Americans had died in traffic accidents in the 20th century as died […]
Hanging Up The Stethoscope. AI Teammates Enter Medicine. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “As machines become more intelligent and can perform more sophisticated functions, a new relationship between human and automation is dawning. This relationship is moving from master-servant to teammates…” NASA Langley Research Center/2019 “DeepSeek’s Breakthrough Sparks National Pride in China,” screamed the Wall Street Journal headline last week. In the age of Trump’s promise […]
Confronting American Apartheid - A Tale of Two Women. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee This past week, Bishop Mariann E. Budde drew the Episcopal Church into the national spotlight through a single act of courage. She is not the first, nor likely the last from this denomination to do so. There is a history. More on that in a moment. The Episcopal church is an offshoot of […]
Remembering LBJ Who Died 52 Years Ago Today. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee This is the 52nd anniversary of the death of Lyndon Baines Johnson from his 5th Heart Attack. And two days ago was the 39th anniversary of the first celebration of a new federal holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In signing that original proclamation in 1983, President Ronald Reagan said, “The majesty […]
Message to Mike Lindell: Sleep Is The Brain’s Rinse Cycle. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee For many Americans, the first image that pops in their heads when they hear the word “sleep” is that of 2020 election denier, and uber-Trump supporting/MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell. With a different election result, Mike and his 40 million shredded foam pillows would be in the rear view mirror rather than generating headlines […]
Voices From The Grave: The Trump Whisperers. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee For those many, many millions of viewers who tuned in to the live coverage of former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral today, they were rewarded with two hours of intriguing video images, and moving words and song, including a recounting of the beginnings of environmental advocacy as Los Angeles burns, and John Lennon’s “Imagine” […]
President Jimmy Carter: Challenged the Moral Majority and Defended of the Bill of Rights. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Today was frigid in Washington , D.C. But inside this sacred dwelling on the corner of 16th and 0 Streets NW, marked by soaring 58 foot ceilings supported by gothic arches, smiles and gratitude filled the air at the 6 p.m. prayer service in memory of former President Jimmy Carter. Carter was an […]
Glory Be To 2025 - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee More than once in the lead up to the launch of 2025 I have heard friends and colleagues express a range of sentiments that circled around the general notion that “This is too much to take.” But throughout history, and into the current period, there are more than a few examples of human […]
A Message From Elizabeth II This Christmas Day - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Hanukkah, the Jewish communities 8-day Festival of Lights begins this Wednesday on December 25, 2024. This is a rather rare calendar coincidence, one that will not repeat again until 2052. Those who witnessed the conspicuous Trump and Musk-induced infighting last week over shutting down our government will have to agree that “enlightenment” couldn’t […]
Your Comments Matter - Reporter Resources for CODE BLUE. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Thanks to Mary Ellen, a veteran health care professional for the comment above. She is absolutely right. CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex, was written intentionally to share with policy makers how our health care arrived at this moment in history, and suggest ways to improve it. For reporters intersed in following this lead, […]
A Clash of Values Playing Out In Full View. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee As the new year, 2025, fast approaches, it’s wise to pause, and gather our thoughts as a nation. Few would argue that we’ve been through a lot over the past decade. And quite naturally, we humans are prone to blame individuals rather than circumstances (some of which have been beyond our control) for […]
Not My Final Column. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee As my wife often reminds me, “Comparisons are toxic.” And, in general, I agree and try to respect this cardinal rule. But these are extraordinary times. So grant me this exception. On December 9, 2024, in my early morning survey of the news, two articles demanded my attention. The first was an editorial […]
AI and Medicine: A Brief History and Where We Are in 2024 - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
(printable PDF) Mike Magee The history of Medicine has always involved a clash between the human need for compassion, understanding, and partnership, and the rigors of scientific discovery and advancing technology. At the interface of these two forces are human societies that struggle to remain forward looking and hopeful while managing complex human relations. The question has […]
Ten People Who Shaped HHS You Never Heard Of. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The incoming Trump Administration nominees for positions in Health and Human Services (like RFK Jr. to direct the department and Mehmet Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid Services) are names you know. But over the years, many of the players who had the greatest impact on America’s health care system as we know […]
What is the Value of our Humanity? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The image of William Westmoreland, speaking direct to the camera in the 1974 documentary “Hearts and Minds”, is stark and unapologetic. He addresses the interviewer’s question about extensive loss of civilian lives during the Vietnam War this way: “Well, the Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as the Westerner. And […]
Thomas E. Kurtz and "A Few Good Men" - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee This has been a challenging week for me, but not for the reasons you might think. Compartmentalization skills have allowed me to push the 2024 Presidential election into the back reaches of my mind as I worked to complete teaching a course on “AI and Medicine” at the Presidents College at the University […]
A Post-Election Resource - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Access Online Hard Copy We are in the grip of change and our American Democracy is at risk. Change is one of the few human experiences that supports two dramatically opposed human emotions. On the one hand, change is fear, and on the other, change is exploration. And while you can support both emotions simultaneously, […]
Will Trump (with RFK as Intern) Play Doctor Again? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee It has been a collision of past, present and future this week in the wake of Trump’s victory on November 5, 2024. The country, both for and against, has been unusually quiet. It is unclear whether this is in recognition of political exhaustion, or the desire of victors to be “good winners” and […]
Penn State College of Medicine's Oath: A Vote For Democracy. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Two years ago, prior to the 2022 election, mental health experts alerted the medical world to their version of an assessment scale for yet another new condition – “doomscrolling.” As defined in the article, “Constant exposure to negative news on social media and news feeds could take the form of ‘doomscrolling’ which is commonly […]
Our 60's Hippie Casts Her Vote. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Pat Magee Jaksha Mike Magee This is my sister, Pat, #3 (I was #4) of 12 children born to Grace and Bill Magee. She was born on Elvis Presley’s birthday – 1 year and 12 days before I was born. That was 14 months after our father had returned from Europe at the close of […]
"Our Fathers, Who Art In Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Names." - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee My father and Arnold Palmer had a great deal in common – and none of it involved golf. They were both men of faith and lived into their 80’s. My father was Catholic, and Arnold Palmer was Presbyterian. But on the day that Palmer died (September 25, 2016), Benedictine Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki […]