A two-part story about medicine under pressure.

A recent federal announcement to combat tick-borne disease has a promising premise but deserves scrutiny.

Part #2 of my Love-Hate Series: Email -- the miracle that connects us, buries us, and sends a “gentle reminder.”

Ensitrelvir reduced Covid-19 incidence 67% in household contacts of active cases.

Staph aureus in an unexpected place, sinus fungal balls, “explosive pleuritis”, and other lessons from 2 weeks on the consult service

Antibiotics, diagnostics, and other sources of professional ambivalence.

Including a video making its big premiere, plus a few other entertaining subjects of note.

Why aren’t we using it?

Twenty facts about a surprisingly common group of infections.

My guess: not much, as long as they’re taking good care of you.

Dr. Paul Sax rounds up key takeaways from CROI 2026, the leading HIV research conference.

Is it time to replace annual N95 mask fit testing with a less expensive, evidence-based policy?

This isn't really about raccoon bites.

CROI, which just wrapped up in Denver, is not like other scientific meetings — it’s quirky. Let me count the ways. There’s the name — the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections — coin...

Share Tweet Pin Mail SMS Any time I write about vaccines, especially mRNA vaccines, things get dicey. Any negative comments might fuel attacks from ...

Learning how to teach, forty minutes at a time.

Share Tweet Pin Mail SMS If you’re not using AI in clinical medicine yet, allow me to strongly recommend you start — soon. Like ...

Or, how I ended up teaching at a boarding school instead of pipetting in a research lab.

A Happy Birthday to a landmark policy change.

A personal exploration of an unpopular view.

A Happy Birthday to a landmark policy change

Three case reports of human rabies recently appeared in the MMWR. Reading each one served as a reminder of just how horrifying this infection is when it strikes — which very fortunately is quite rare ...

The origins of "How to Figure Out the Length of Antibiotic Therapy"

In what feels like the fastest-peaking influenza season in quite some time, I find myself returning to a familiar answer when asked questions about this miserable virus: “We just don’t know.” At least...

Checking in at the three-month point in this writing journey.

Share Tweet Pin Mail SMS Part 1 of this azithromycin series explained how the drug became ubiquitous. In Part 2, we’ll explore why many ...

A Happy New Year gift to me and everyone who shares one or both of these enthusiasms.

Chances are, across this great land of ours, right at this very moment, someone is coughing, or sneezing, or struggling with a sore throat, or some combination of the above, and taking the antibiotic ...

Looking at radiology images, then and now.

Some statements are wrong enough to make your head explode.

Share Tweet Pin Mail SMS A very interesting, quite scholarly perspective appeared in the NEJM last month called, “Strategies to Reinvigorate the Bedside Clinical ...

If you're an ID doctor, you'll be asked by friends for travel advice -- comes with the territory. Here's a recent example.

Absolutely brutal temperatures arrived up here in Boston over the past week, just in time for the peak holiday season, and we’ve even had a dusting of snow. Here’s proof, in case you don’t believe me....

When a fever isn’t “just a virus”, and being the doctor-son gets much harder.

Looking back on these annual Thanksgiving posts, I notice an odd pattern: every few years, the intro turns into a kind of apology. As in, Yes, I know the title sounds upbeat, please don’t attack me. T...

Sneezes, penicillin allergies, and those strangely sacred 5- and 7-day courses.

A journalist recently reached out to ask about the shingles vaccine. We mostly talked through the usual topics — how common shingles is, why the vaccine works so well, and side effects. Plus, the whol...

Looking a little deeper, I found out what we really should be worried about.

Every so often, you sit down for what’s supposed to be a lighthearted conversation and end up somewhere not just fun, but deeply enjoyable and even profound. That’s what happened when I joined my frie...

What happens when we get texts about Trader Joe’s fettuccine — and what to do when infections make headlines.

Just back from a visit to the Infectious Diseases Division at Johns Hopkins, thanks to the kind invitation of current ID chief Dr. Amita Gupta and her predecessor, Dr. David Thomas. On a personal note...

How AI finally delivered on my colleague’s joke — and how it’s changing the way clinicians look up medical information.

As we await the results of placebo-controlled COVID-19 vaccine studies, what are we clinicians to do when our patients ask us whether they should get a booster this fall? What once was a no-brainer in...

Remembering my father, and times when he needed medical help — and called me. First of a two- (and maybe three-) part series

At last year’s IDWeek — the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America — a group of us veterans in the HIV/ID world wrapped up a busy day of symposia, abstracts, and posters with a l...

On Friday night, news broke that more than a thousand CDC staff received layoff notices — including people who track measles outbreaks, analyze data to craft policy, monitor employee safety, and, rema...

The DOTS randomized clinical trial of dalbavancin versus standard-of-care for Staph aureus bacteremia (SAB) just landed in JAMA, where it undoubtedly will be featured in numerous ID, hospitalist, and ...