Category Archives: Uncategorized

I have been asked this more than once. And, I don’t actually know the answer, because I don’t know of any good studies that address this question. There is little debate that in some cases, there do appear to be infections that can be traced back to flights. But, I have no idea how manyContinue reading “Is it Safe to Fly on Commercial Airlines?”

I have been an outspoken critic of school boards making decisions to reopen schools for in-person classes in areas with high degrees of community spread of COVID without giving due consideration to public health advice and medical input and without articulating their reasoning when choosing not to follow this advice. I do appreciate that theContinue reading “Reopening Schools Safely”

I have long been frustrated that people tend to lump the effects of COVID into two buckets – (1) infections in young persons that tend to be asymptomatic or mild and (2) infections in the elderly that may land them in the hospital or even result in death. Both extremes certainly exist and are commonContinue reading “Myocarditis Due to COVID”

The most common misinformation that I hear about COVID is not “this is a hoax” or “masks don’t work” or “kids don’t get sick” or “kids don’t transmit COVID” or “this is no worse than the flu.” It is a statement that goes like this, “Opening schools must be based on decisions that balance theContinue reading “The Long Term Effects of COVID”

The following is an opinion piece I wrote that was published in the Idaho Press Tribune. It has long been established in every jurisdiction of our country, that those who provide certain products or services to the public and consumers can be held liable for providing those products or services without the exercise of reasonableContinue reading “School Boards Should Not Get Blanket Liability Protections for Reopening Decisions”

Some physicians have been pushing for people to get antibody tests for COVID in ways that I believe have been irresponsible. Recently, I commented on twitter (@drpatesblog) on yet another case, in which a patient with documented COVID infection was tested for antibodies 40 days following the resolution of his illness, and antibodies were notContinue reading “What We Think We Know about Immunity for SARS-CoV-2 – How I would explain it to a Fifth Grader”

I frequently get asked about herd immunity, what is it; how long will it take us to get to it for this new SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID; and why don’t we just throw caution to the wind, lock up granny and throw COVID parties until we have enough people infected (no one has actuallyContinue reading “Herd Immunity for SARS-CoV-2”

School leaders and decision-makers all across the country are trying to make decisions about whether to open schools for in-person education, when to open schools, and how to open schools safely both for students and their faculty and staff. These decisions are all the more difficult because unfortunately, for many parts of the country, thereContinue reading “Questions for School Boards and School Principals”

Those that follow my blog, follow me on Twitter, listen to me answering listener questions about the coronavirus on radio or watch me on local television news programming will know that I have been an outspoken critic of offering SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing to the general public dating back to March. I still am, and asContinue reading “What You Should Know About Immunity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Variant 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID”

We all remain hopeful that a safe and effective vaccine to protect us from infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be available within a year. This is far from certain, however, there reportedly have been promising results in early trials (we know little more than what has been in press releases because results of theseContinue reading “COVID-19 Vaccine -Many Questions Remain”