Author Archives: ceopate

We have long known that certain viruses have the potential to infect the brain (e.g., the measles, polio, and herpes simplex viruses), but we have not understood why this happens in some patients and not in others, and in most cases, we don’t yet have a complete understanding of how viruses do this (fortunately, ourContinue reading “Our Understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 Causes Neurological Complications Continues to Increase”

Some people on social media and in conversations can often be heard to say that they can tell which variant they or someone else was infected with by the symptoms that dominated their illness. I have been skeptical of that claim, and recently, studies in adults have demonstrated that there has not been a statisticallyContinue reading “Do COVID Symptoms in Children vary by Variant?”

Those that read my blog, follow me on Twitter or listen to me on the radio will not be surprised that I have been critical of some hospitals making a decision to end masking and certain other COVID mitigation measures in hospitals during a pandemic with an airborne virus that has a much higher riskContinue reading “Many Hospitals May Regret Their Decision to Relax COVID Precautions”

By this time, it is likely that most everyone knows that COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus. Some will actually be able to recall the specific name of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 as SARS-CoV-2, an acronym for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus – 2. A good number of people will quickly realize thatContinue reading “Human Coronaviruses”

For some time, we have been hearing many in the U.S. say that everyone has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and already had COVID-19. I am guessing that those folks fall into one of three camps: First, a high-level review of antibodies. There are 5 major categories of antibodies (we abbreviate them with the prefix “Ig”Continue reading “Is it true that everyone has had COVID-19?”

Since early in the pandemic, I have urged the public not to focus only on deaths from COVID. I cautioned then that getting infected: Based upon what little we did know at the beginning of the pandemic, for someone my age, the risk of severe disease was the greatest concern because I was more likelyContinue reading “A COVID Cautionary Tale”

You may think that the title is a bit weird, but it is intentional. I am going to give a brief overview of the current understanding of Long COVID. However, I have practiced medicine long enough to understand that our knowledge about who gets certain diseases, why those individuals get the disease, what mechanisms areContinue reading “What Do We Think We Know about Long COVID at this Point”

A Guide to Planning from the Schoolhouse to the White House This day has been a long time coming. Our book is officially released today! You can access our book from local bookstores, Walmart (beginning 4/24) and many other distributors, including: In print, Kindle version or audiobook. How did this book come to be? InContinue reading “Preparing for the Next Global Outbreak”

People who follow my blog or follow me on Twitter will not be surprised that I disagree with the decisions made by some hospitals to end mask requirements in healthcare facilities. In fact, I previously wrote a blog piece as to why. However, I also realize that health care leaders are dealing with very challengingContinue reading “My 2 cents on ending mask requirements in hospitals”

Let’s first clear up a technicality: it is not actually the origins of COVID-19 that is at the center of the debate. We know that COVID-19 is a disease that is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2 (an acronym for severe acute respiratory syndrome – coronavirus followed by the number 2 because the first severeContinue reading “How are non-scientists to understand the COVID origins debate?”