Opinion | ‘We Cannot Treat Dead People’: What We Heard This Week

“We cannot treat dead people.” — White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta, MD, MPH, discussing whether to focus on opioid treatment or trafficking.

“Thank you for reminding me why I do this.” — Stuart Bloom, MD, regarding feedback he hears from physicians who see his musical show “How to Avoid Burnout in 73 Minutes.”

“This is a money-making operation and a very concerning practice of medicine.” — Robert Eckel, MD, a past president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, commenting on Texas insulin infusion clinics that claim to treat a slew of medical conditions.

“If we said cancer affects physicians twice as likely as the general population, we would be throwing tons of money at that.” — Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, on infertility rates among women physicians.

“Our preparedness is going to be inadequate.” — Amesh Adalja, MD, of Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in Baltimore, warning that the U.S. is not ready for a potential nuclear attack.

“From a clinical standpoint and a patient-management standpoint, they’re definitely not doing the right thing.” — Alexander Pastuszak, MD, PhD, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, discussing online “low T” clinics that overprescribe testosterone to men seeking relief from fatigue and lack of libido.

“This is clearly an acute change in mental status.” — Jeremy Faust, MD, MedPage Today‘s medical editor-in-chief and an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who appeared to experience a medical problem during a press conference.

“These are women who not only had short cervices, but had really short cervices.” — Matthew Hoffman, MD, MPH, of ChristianaCare in Newark, Delaware, discussing the trial population in a cervical pessaries study.

“Perhaps we should not be too surprised by the rise in HCV [hepatitis C virus] given the parallel increase in opioid use diagnoses among pregnant women.” — Po-Hung (Victor) Chen, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, discussing rising hepatitis C virus infections among pregnant women in the past two decades.

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