Opinion | ‘It’s Organized and It’s Linked to Political Power’: What We Heard This Week

“It’s deliberate, it’s organized, and it’s linked to political power.” — Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, referring to anti-science misinformation surrounding COVID-19, vaccines, and virology.

“We need to distinguish between old COVID and new COVID.” — Vlassi Baktidy, MD, of Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York, discussing commonly reported pulmonary long COVID symptoms.

“The mental health of physicians is actually quite a big problem.” — Amy Bohnert, PhD, of the the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, pointing out the large number of first-year residents with clinical depression.

“We know much more than we did, but there is still a lot we don’t know.” — Andres Cordova Sanchez, MD, of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, on the link between cystic fibrosis and cardiac disorders.

“Many presented distorted, untrue portrayals of global and public health infrastructure and motives.” — Marco Zenone, MSc, of the University of Alberta in Canada, on videos on TikTok featuring monkeypox conspiracy theories that racked up nearly 1.5 million views.

“Over the past decade, it has been observed that people tend to sleep less.” — Séverine Sabia, PhD, of Université de Paris and University College London, commenting on the higher risk of multiple chronic diseases linked with sleeping 5 hours or less per night.