Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed

The New York Times: What To Do If Your Doctor's Notes Hurt Your Feelings
Have you ever been insulted by your own medical records? Medical jargon can be confusing, but it can also sometimes hurt a patient’s feelings. This week on Twitter, a group of health care workers shared stories of patients who became upset after reading the physician notes in their medical records. One patient read the notes from her colonoscopy report, which included a reference to a “time out.” The woman reportedly was upset by this, and called her doctor saying she was “well behaved during the procedure and did not need a ‘time out.’” (Parker-Pope, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: An Umpire Took One Too Many Foul Balls To The Face. He Invented A Solution
Jason Klein was umpiring a minor-league game in Durham, N.C., in 2007 when a business idea hit him in the face—literally.A foul tip slammed directly into Klein’s chin so viciously that he immediately turned to the catcher and asked if he was bleeding and still had all his teeth. He couldn’t feel anything. The blow left him incapacitated for several minutes. Umpires call a ball in that spot a “kill shot.” ... When his brain stopped rattling and the stars disappeared from his eyes, Klein realized there had to be a better way to protect umpires from this sort of trauma. It led to him creating the Force3 Defender mask, which uses a spring-cushioned shock-absorbing system to take the brunt of the force from foul tips. The son of a metallurgist and a teacher, Klein spent five years researching, developing and testing the product, which aims to minimize the risk of concussions and other head injuries. (Diamond, 10/4)

The New York Times: Tallying The Cost Of Growing Older
Say you’re a 65-year-old looking ahead, wondering about your health and your finances, pondering what life might be like in 20 years. You might get lucky, like Susan Green, a retired social worker. At 82, she enjoys hiking, golfing and cross-country skiing (although she has given up downhill) with her husband in Ketchum, Idaho. The only assistance they need: a weekly housekeeper. Or you might be as fortunate as Sally Dorst, also 82, a retired magazine editor who lives on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. A committed museum visitor and concertgoer (we couldn’t talk the first time I called because Ms. Dorst was attending the New York City Ballet’s reopening performance), she manages personal care and household tasks on her own, including toting heavy bags of litter home for her two cats. (Span, 10/2)

The Washington Post: How To Do Your First Pull-Up, And Why You Should Try 
You might think of pull-ups as an upper-body exercise you’d never have the strength to tackle, but your first one might be closer than you think. While you need full-body strength, tenacity and patience to master the move, according to Angela Gargano — a certified personal trainer, four-time “American Ninja Warrior” contestant and founder of Strong Feels Good — it’s worth it. “Being able to lift yourself above a bar is invigorating,” she says. (Moore, 10/6)

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The New York Times: Do I Still Need A Pulse Oximeter At Home To Monitor Covid-19? 
Many people first learned about a pulse oximeter in the early days of the pandemic, after doctors warned that some patients with Covid-19 develop a form of oxygen deprivation called “silent hypoxia,” which occurs when blood oxygen levels drop so slowly that a patient doesn’t notice anything is wrong. Often these patients are so ill by the time they get to the hospital that they need to be put on a ventilator. New research from South Africa shows that using a pulse oximeter to check oxygen levels after a Covid diagnosis really does save lives. For the study, 8,115 high-risk patients were given a pulse oximeter to use at home after Covid-19 was diagnosed. The study focused on the highest-risk patients, including older people, those who were pregnant or those with chronic illnesses like heart disease, hypertension or diabetes. (Parker-Pope, 10/5)

The Washington Post: Drew Weissman Helped Make MRNA Vaccines Possible 
For months, the postcards and letters have flowed in from across the world, slipped under the door of Drew Weissman’s austere fourth-floor office at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Brisbane, Australia. Lynnwood, Wash. New York City. In looping cursive, strangers write to thank this reticent 62-year-old scientist whose years of painstaking work with a scientific partner, Katalin Kariko, formed the backbone of coronavirus vaccines. “You’ve made hugs and closeness possible again.” (Johnson, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Katalin Kariko Laid The Scientific Groundwork For Coronavirus Vaccines 
Nearly three decades ago, Katalin Kariko called her husband and 10-year-old daughter into her home office in the Philadelphia suburbs to share a thrilling new scientific idea. “You have to sit down and now listen to my argument!” she told them. Kariko, a research assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, told her family about a fragile genetic material called messenger RNA. This profound molecule, a simple strand of four chemical letters, instructed cells how to make proteins. (Johnson, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Barney Graham’s Work With Other Scientists On Coronavirus Paved The Way For Vaccines 
Weeks before the pandemic was officially a pandemic, vaccine scientist Barney Graham spent long days in a public health war room in Geneva. he death toll from the novel coronavirus had just passed 1,000. Graham and hundreds of other experts descended on a massive circular table at the World Health Organization’s headquarters for an urgent global brainstorming session: How could science help? (Johnson, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Can The New ‘Fauci’ Documentary Find An Audience After So Much Pandemic Fatigue?
“Fauci,” the new National Geographic documentary about Anthony S. Fauci airing on Disney Plus, kicks off in a fairly surprising way: with a chorus of skeptical, even contemptuous sound bites about the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “Tony Fauci has not been elected to anything. He’s had the same job for nearly 40 years. That means the majority of American voters never even indirectly picked him,” says one commentator. “Yet in the last four months, Fauci has become one of the most powerful people in the world.” (Maloy, 10/6)

Politico: How A Doctor Who Questioned Vaccine Safety Became DeSantis’ Surgeon General Pick
Joseph A. Ladapo, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pick to be Florida’s next surgeon general, looks great on paper. He has medical and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and has held professorships at prestigious schools like New York University and UCLA. But public health experts and some Florida lawmakers have expressed grave concerns with Ladapo. Some say he lacks experience in public health policy. Others point to Ladapo’s questioning of the safety of Covid-19 vaccines or the effectiveness of lockdowns and mask mandates. He has also raised eyebrows for his support of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug heralded as a coronavirus treatment by former President Donald Trump. The FDA later withdrew emergency authorization for its use. (Sarkissian, 9/29)