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Playing Ball In Health Politics - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame (1948) Mike Magee The massive extension of tax cuts to the super-wealthy and financing of ICE-laced terrorism of immigrants doesn’t come cheap. The Kaiser Family Foundation predicts it will expand the nation’s debt ceiling by $5 trillion and add 17 […]
Not All Leadership Is Created Equal. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee In light of today’s attack on Charlie Kirk (and other recent) events, it seems right to pause and reflect on leadership. Because the truth is, not all leaders are created equal. We are in the grip of change and our American Democracy is at risk. Change is one of the few human […]
The Un-civil War at HHS - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The Health and Human Services department (HHS) includes in its dominion the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is fair to say that their new leader, RFK Jr. is not a wallflower. In June, the FDA led the news with […]
What does "Ha Boob" think of the haboob? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee We awakened this morning to learn that there is a new word we Americans must learn if we wish our children and grandchildren to breathe healthy air in their near future. It is haboob. According to the National Weather Service, haboob is “an intense, fast-moving wall of dust kicked up by thunderstorm winds.” […]
Measles Vaccine - Misremembering, Forgetting, and Deceiving. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee If there were a contest for longest titles for a small piece of art, surely Belgian artist Rene’ Magritte’s “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man. would be a contender. Despite the 26 word label, […]
“Lead Us To The Saving Of Our Country.” - FDR - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee When the Depression struck, he was 5 years old. Simultaneously, the great dust storms arrived. John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” immortalized the travails of the Joad family from Oklahoma, tenant farmers trapped in the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck could have easily substituted the family with this boy, who remembered years later, “The dust killed […]
Zohran Mumdani Triggers NYC Memories of Fiorello La Guardia - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee What are the chances that citizens of New York, the largest city in the nation, would vote in a majority to oppose a formerly corrupt politician with a party machine behind him, and instead favor a little known candidate – the son of immigrant parents with “swarthy skin and belligerent independence,” from […]
What Would Eli Ginzberg Think of MAGAnomics? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “The Monetarization of Medical Care.” It had appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine 13 years earlier, on May 3, 1984, and was written by a Columbia University economics professor named Eli Ginzberg. At the time I first read it, doctors were in an upheaval in Massachusetts. Managed Care and Health Maintenance […]
"China Shock 2.0": China Goes “Democratic” on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Last week, following a visit to the White House, Jensen Huang instigated a wholesale reversal of policy from Trump who was blocking Nvidia sales of its H20 chip to China. What did Jensen say? We can only guess of course. But he likely shared the results of a proprietary report from noted AI […]
"Everybody's Job Will Be Different Going Forward." - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee In a speech to the American Philosophical Society in January, 1946, J. Robert Oppenheimer said, “We have made a thing …that has altered abruptly and profoundly the nature of the world…We have raised again the question of whether science is good for man, of whether it is good to learn about the world, […]
The Texas Flood Disaster - Not "An Act of God." - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee In the wake of last week’s human tragedy in Texas, it would be easy (and appropriate) to focus on the role played by Trump’s reckless recent dismantling of FEMA and related federal agencies. But to do so would be to accept that the event was an anomaly, or as Trump labeled it on […]
"The Devils in The Dark" - The Continuing Evolution of the Medical Tricoder - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee On March 9, 1967, the Star Trek classic episode, “The Devil in the Dark” first aired. The Enterprise had received an urgent distress call from miners on the planet Janus VI. They are literally melting after, Horta, a wounded inhabitant has targeted them with liquifying acid rays. A sympathetic Spock hears the call, […]
Life Goes On - How, When, Why? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Here are some notable views on managing life’s daily challenges. Do any especially resonate with you, and why? ________________________________________________________ The crisis you have to worry about most is the one you don’t see coming. Mike Mansfield The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; ‘tis […]
Stand Tall Stanford. Lead Again - Divest TESLA! - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee On the Stanford campus this Spring, in the middle of Silicon Valley, it was impossible not to hear echoes of Apartheid re-emerging with force 3/4 of a century after the original battle for social justice here and in far away lands was fully engaged. Stanford’s President, Jonathan Levin, said it best in […]
Modern Advice From a 90 Year Old in 1988 - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee These days we’re all seeking good advice, how best to manage fear and worry, to focus on the goodness in others, and believe that caring and compassion are rationale responses to those in need. But surprisingly, advice – whether free or at a price – is mostly off the mark. But not in […]
Reflecting On Good and Evil. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee There’s a lot of soul-searching going on. Take a moment to read out loud – to pause and consider. The topic: Good vs. Evil. _______________________________________________________ That there is goodness in this world is undeniable. That there is evil, capable of taking root to branch and multiply with breathtaking speed and by surprise, is […]
Introducing Claude Elwood Shannon - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Let me be the first to introduce you to Claude Elwood Shannon. If you have never heard of him but consider yourself informed and engaged, including at the interface of AI and Medicine, don’t be embarrassed. I taught a semester of “AI and Medicine” in 2024 and only recently was introduced to […]
Trump Sucker Punches Catholic Conservatives - Twice. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee If there is one thing we Catholic kids learned in what we used to call “Parochial School” was the look and feel of “schoolyard bullies.” They were recognizable from a distance and you gave them plenty of space because they were unpredictable. You could be standing there doing nothing, and the next thing […]
The Meaning of "Memorial Day" in 2025. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee According to Veterans Administration historians, the origin of Memorial Day dates back to 1864 when three women from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania joined in grief to decorate the graves of family members who had died in the Civil War. A year later, other townspeople joined in and one year later, in 1866, women in Columbus, […]
The "Pursuit of Blessedness" Is Running Out Of Time. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Nine months ago, during the Presidential debate, Trump declared, when questioned directly about the Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership, “I know nothing about it.” Even for Trump, this was a strikingly bald-faced lie considering that the former President’s name was mentioned over 300 times in the 887 page document. Described at the time […]
The Pope's Algebra Lesson - The Transitive Property of Equality: Health, Politics, and Religion. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Algebra came to life last week when Trump/Musk’s dismantling of our federal health services collided with the dramatic election of our first ever American Pope. As Health, Politics, and Religion collided, we saw the Transitive Property of Equality (If A=B, and B=C, then A=C) spring back to life for the first time since […]
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 […]