‘This Is an Extremely Rare Phenomenon’: What We Heard This Week

“It is important to note that this is an extremely rare phenomenon.” — Apurv Soni, MD, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, on cases of false-positive rapid COVID tests.

“Likely, if we are able to treat one of these illnesses, we will be able to treat them all.” — Avindra Nath, MD, of NINDS in Bethesda, Maryland, discussing post-infectious syndromes like long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

“We don’t see public health campaigns promoting greater contraceptive use for married, privately insured 30-year-olds, but we do see these efforts for a variety of marginalized and minoritized groups.” — Kavita Shah Arora, MD, MBE, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discussing contraceptive counseling.

“So far, it’s helping people’s overall intellectual function.” — Judith Ford, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco, discussing how a ketogenic diet might help certain psychiatric conditions.

“It doesn’t appear that Medicare Advantage plans are necessarily making care more affordable for people.” — Gretchen Jacobson, PhD, vice president of the Commonwealth Fund’s Medicare program, on survey results comparing the experience of traditional and Medicare Advantage enrollees.

“The smaller a ball is, the more it can fit into the eye socket without hitting the bone.” — Andrew Lee, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital, on the ocular risks of pickleball.

“While [PTSD is] thought of as a mental illness, it’s really not, in some sense.” — Michael Hollifield, MD, of the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center in Long Beach, California, on post-traumatic stress disorder in military veterans.

“You aren’t creating folks who are going to misuse opioids.” — Angela Snyder, PhD, MPH, of the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University in Atlanta, discussing opioid use in children with sickle cell disease who were prescribed the drugs for acute pain.