#jeremyfaust

[biglisbonnews]

Here's how 10 industries are experimenting with ChatGPT OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI chatbot trained on vast amounts of data, debuted in public in November 2022, immediately fueling both concern and creative conversation about the role of AI in the working world. In the subsequent months, the buzz has only grown, as more and more professionals ask: What does ChatGPT mean for…Read more... https://qz.com/heres-how-10-industries-are-experimenting-with-chatgpt-1850087138

[joeyfirst]

Mit fortlaufenden Updates...

Präsident Trumps Behandlungsprotokoll - veröffentlicht mit Genehmigung von Trump selber. Er wird mit experimentellen Covid-19-Antikörpermedikamenten von Regeneron behandelt. Sie befinden sich noch in der klinischen Testphase und können wohl die Konzentration des Virus im Körper reduzieren und möglicherweise den Krankenhausaufenthalt verkürzen - wenn sie früh genug im Verlauf der Infektion verabreicht werden. Der C.E.O. von Regeneron, Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, kennt den Präsidenten seit Jahren vom Golfen.

Die Frage, die von vielen nun durchaus berechtigt gestellt wird: Wird ein US-Präsident "experimentell" medizinisch behandelt bei nur "mäßigen Symptomen"?

+++

Ergänzung: Nur wenige Minuten nach Veröffentlichung des Protokolls wird Präsident Trump mit Marine One vom White House ins Walter Reed Military Medical Center ausgeflogen.

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Wenn jemand Covid und Husten hat, dann ist das Virus bereits in der Lunge, dh. er hat es nicht erst seit Freitag und von "leichtem Verlauf" kann nicht mehr die Rede sein. Ich habe noch sehr gut die kommunikative Salamitaktik um Boris Johnson im Kopf. Die Lage ist ernst.

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Das wird jetzt spooky: Der Antibodycocktail wurde bisher wohl nur an 275 Menschen getestet... ist also vollkommen experimentell. Jeremy Faust, ein Harvard-Arzt, interpretiert die Situation so, dass sie entweder nicht wissen was sie tun oder Trump quasi im Sterben liegt, weshalb sie verzweifelt alles tun, um ihn zu retten.

Voice-Memo:

https://twitter.com/jeremyfaust/status/1…

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Gefahr eines Zytokinsturms wird von mehreren Ärzten als Folge dieser hohen Dosis Antikörper-Cocktail genannt.

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Eric Trump vor 16 Minuten:

"@RealDonaldTrump is a true warrior. He will fight through this with the same strength and conviction that he uses to fight for America each and every day. I ask you to join me in praying for his recovery. I have never been more proud of someone and what they have had to endure."

Das klingt nach großer Sorge.

+++

[thetaizuru]

https://twitter.com/jeremyfaust/status/1268615125323272192

[fueltransitsleep]

For those interested, here’s a link to the study in question.  And here are two Twitter threads explaining why the study is so flawed from a Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist and an ER doctor https://twitter.com/KateGrabowski/status/1271542361244352514 https://twitter.com/jeremyfaust/status/1271572189490397184 It’s important to note that neither say that wearing masks should be discouraged or don’t help at all, just that the conclusion that 100% wearing of masks alone could halt a second wave is based on bad methodology and could lead to more harm than good. It is also worth noting that New Zealand, the only country so far that can say with any sort of certainty that it has eliminated COVID for the time being, never made masks mandatory or even encouraged their wearing in public. Similarly, British Columbia (arguably the jurisdiction in North America that handled a large scale population wide outbreak the best) also has had a comparatively relaxed mask guidance, where Dr. Bonnie Henry has only recommended their use when physical distancing is not possible.

Have you been following the kerfuffle around that paper published in PNAS article that went viral (pun not intended) recently? It supposedly proves that mask wearing is far more important than even physical distancing for stopping the spread of COVID, but I've also been seeing a lot of researchers pushing back against it, saying that the paper has many serious flaws, some even calling for it to be retracted.

~~~~

[kristablogs]

The truth about asymptomatic COVID-19

Masks are still a crucial part of fighting COVID-19 (Anna Shvets/Pexels/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including news on federal policies, the latest on immune-response research, and a state-by-state breakdown of confirmed cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) seemed to claim earlier this week that asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 weren’t major spreaders of the virus, before walking back their statements a day later. Many people were understandably confused and frustrated about the apparent flip-flopping, but the truth is, as ever, a bit more complicated.

“They were trying to quibble about a point,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease researcher at the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/ San Francisco General Hospital. “They were trying to make the point that we have no idea how much transmission occurs from asymptomatic versus presymptomatic people.”

Making that fairly semantic point at a major press conference—just days after the WHO changed its stance on mask wearing—caused all of this to be taken out of context and misunderstood, Gandhi notes. It’s understandable that it sparked such a controversy.

But the facts remain the same, says Gandhi: “It’s undisputed that spread occurs from those who don’t have symptoms.”

It’s true that, as the WHO stated, we don’t yet know to what degree asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people are spreading COVID-19. Some early models suggested up to 55 percent of the disease’s spread could be due to these hidden carriers, which make up an unusually high number of the virus’s total cases. Gandhi notes that we still have a lot to learn about this kind of transmission: What we do know is that asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people are definitely part of the equation. The virus has spread so fast in spite of social distancing and shutdown measures that it can’t only be symptomatic people who are propagating the virus.

What Dr. Van Kerkhove is really saying, I think, is that when WHO follows up with people who did contact tracing, they found that they could *not detect* a lot of asymptomatic spread of SARS-CoV-2. How do we square that with articles like this? https://t.co/40yQ6LRAJP Answer:

— Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) June 8, 2020

That means you shouldn’t take the WHO’s statement as a sign that you should stop wearing a mask or stop social distancing. “What we did with social distancing and lockdown was necessary,” Gandhi says. “We can never say that wasn’t necessary.”

And in fact, Gandhi says, evidence suggests both of those measures are having a real impact on how COVID-19 spreads—though perhaps not in the way you might think.

The rate of asymptomatic infections seems to be getting higher and higher, and that may be because people are being exposed to lower viral loads due to social distancing and mask-wearing. Early rates of asymptomatic infection were low, based on populations where testing was widespread enough to catch all cases—6 percent in Singapore, and 18 percent on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was refused entry to Tokyo earlier this year and thus sat in the bay for 27 days until the passengers were allowed to leave. But later estimates put it much higher. A large testing mission in San Francisco found that around 50 percent of people with COVID-19 had no symptoms. Another cruise ship, this one sailing near South America, gave everyone on board masks and tested all passengers, and found that 81 percent of those with COVID-19 were asymptomatic.

There’s also a striking correlation between those countries that implemented mask-wearing early—mostly those previously hit by SARS, but also Czechia—and low death rates from coronavirus. “If you look at these countries there’s a near perfect correlation, no matter what else you do,” say Gandhi.

This from @WHO is getting a lot of attention and creating confusion. I want to quickly share what I understand about this. Bottom line question: Are infected people without symptoms an important cause of spread? My best guess: yes. A thread https://t.co/NnLpf7kTVh

— Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) June 8, 2020

This phenomenon, where the dose of the virus a person is exposed to determines how sick they get, isn’t new. Influenza seems to work this way, as do GI diseases like norovirus and STDs like hepatitis C. The idea is that the more viral particles a person is exposed to, the sicker they’re likely to get. A huge influx of a virus into your body may be very hard for your immune system to fight off, while your cells could easily handle a smaller group of invaders. If this is true of SARS-CoV-2, this could actually be good news.

“That’s having your cake and eating it too, if you can not get sick and be immune,” says Gandhi. It’s not yet clear how much protection a recovered COVID-19 patient has thanks to their immune system’s antibodies, but they probably maintain some defenses against the disease for at least a few weeks or months, if not longer. If most COVID-19 cases carry no symptoms at all, people could develop protection—making them less likely to get a serious case or spread the virus to others in the future—without suffering ill effects. In the absence of a vaccine, which could take a year or more to actually develop, that could be crucial.

What we really care about, Gandhi notes, is the people who get seriously ill. If we can prevent people from getting really sick from COVID-19, even if those people still get the virus, that’s a good thing. And all the data we have suggests that wearing a mask and social distancing are still key to fighting this virus.

There’s still a lot we have to learn about SARS-CoV-2. We don’t know how much live virus asymptomatic people might spread, for instance. It’s also not clear how many people might be functionally asymptomatic—suffering nothing worse than a scratchy throat or headache they can easily ignore—while still spreading the virus as much as those with more obvious symptoms. But we’ve also learned a lot of helpful information in the past few months: Wearing masks may not protect you from getting the virus entirely, but it could keep you from getting seriously ill. That means you shouldn’t just wear a mask to protect others—you should do it for your own sake. Especially as states begin to reopen, it will be crucial to take whatever precautions we can.

View this post on Instagram

Confused by recent WHO statements? Here's the truth about asymptomatic #COVID19 transmission. #linkinbio for more coverage 👉 @popsci 📊: @sarachodoshviz

A post shared by Popular Science (@popsci) on Jun 9, 2020 at 12:59pm PDT

[scootoaster]

The truth about asymptomatic COVID-19

Masks are still a crucial part of fighting COVID-19 (Anna Shvets/Pexels/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including news on federal policies, the latest on immune-response research, and a state-by-state breakdown of confirmed cases.

The World Health Organization seemed to claim earlier this week that asymptomatic COVID-19 patients weren’t major spreaders of the virus, before walking back their statements a day later. Many people were understandably confused and frustrated about the apparent flip-flopping, but the truth is, as ever, a bit more complicated.

“They were trying to quibble about a point,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease researcher at the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/ San Francisco General Hospital. “They were trying to make the point that we have no idea how much transmission occurs from asymptomatic vs presymptomatic people.”

Making that fairly semantic point at a major press conference—just days after the WHO changed its stance on mask-wearing—caused all of this to be taken out of context and misunderstood, Gandhi notes. It’s understandable that it sparked such a controversy.

But the facts remain the same, says Gandhi: “It’s undisputed that spread occurs from those who don’t have symptoms.”

It’s true that, as the WHO stated, we don’t yet know to what degree asymptomatic or presymptomatic people are spreading COVID-19. Some early models suggested up to 55 percent of the disease’s spread could be due to these hidden carriers, which make up an unusually high number of the virus’s total cases, but we don’t really know for sure. Gandhi notes that we still have a lot to learn about this kind of transmission. What we do know is that asymptomatic or presymptomatic people are definitely part of the equation. The virus has spread so fast, and in spite of social distancing and lockdown measures, that it can’t only be symptomatic people who are propagating the virus.

What Dr. Van Kerkhove is really saying, I think, is that when WHO follows up with people who did contact tracing, they found that they could *not detect* a lot of asymptomatic spread of SARS-CoV-2. How do we square that with articles like this? https://t.co/40yQ6LRAJP Answer:

— Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) June 8, 2020

That means you shouldn’t take the WHO’s statement as a sign that you should stop wearing a mask or stop social distancing. “What we did with social distancing and lockdown was necessary,” Gandhi says. “We can never say that wasn’t necessary.”

And in fact, Gandhi says, evidence suggests both of those measures are having a real impact on how COVID-19 spreads—though perhaps not in the way you might think.

The rate of asymptomatic infections seems to be getting higher and higher, and that may be because people are being exposed to lower viral loads due to social distancing and mask-wearing. Early rates of asymptomatic infection were low, based on populations where testing was widespread enough to catch all cases—6 percent in Singapore, and 18 percent on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was refused entry to Tokyo earlier this year and thus sat in the bay for 27 days until the passengers were allowed to leave. But later estimates put it much higher. A large testing mission in San Francisco found that around 50 percent of people with COVID-19 had no symptoms. Another cruise ship, this one sailing near South America, gave everyone on board masks and tested all passengers, and found that 81 percent of those with COVID-19 were asymptomatic.

There’s also a striking correlation between those countries that implemented mask-wearing early—mostly those previously hit by SARS, but also Czechia—and low death rates from coronavirus. “If you look at these countries there’s a near perfect correlation, no matter what else you do,” say Gandhi.

This from @WHO is getting a lot of attention and creating confusion. I want to quickly share what I understand about this. Bottom line question: Are infected people without symptoms an important cause of spread? My best guess: yes. A thread https://t.co/NnLpf7kTVh

— Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) June 8, 2020

This phenomenon, where the dose of the virus a person is exposed to determines how sick they get, is not new. Influenza seems to work this way, as do GI diseases like norovirus and STDs like hepatitis C. The idea is that the more viral particles a person is exposed to, the sicker they’re likely to get. A huge influx of a virus into your body may be very hard for your immune system to fight off, while your cells could easily handle a smaller group of invaders. If this is true of SARS-CoV-2, this could actually be good news.

“That’s having your cake and eating it too, if you can not get sick and be immune,” says Gandhi. It’s not yet clear how much protection a recovered COVID-19 patient has thanks to their immune system’s antibodies, but it’s likely they maintain some defenses against the disease for at least a few weeks or months, if not more. If most COVID-19 cases carry no symptoms at all, people could develop protection—making them less likely to get a serious case or spread the virus to others in the future—without suffering ill effects. In the absence of a vaccine, which could take a year or more to actually develop, that could be crucial.

What we really care about, Gandhi notes, is the people who get seriously ill. If we can prevent people from getting really sick from COVID-19, even if those people still get the virus, that’s a good thing. And all the data we have suggests that wearing a mask and social distancing are still key to fighting this virus.

There’s still a lot we have to learn about SARS-CoV-2. We don’t know how much live virus asymptomatic people might spread, for instance. It’s also not clear how many people might be functionally asymptomatic—suffering nothing worse than a scratchy throat or headache they can easily ignore—while still spreading the virus as much as those with more obvious symptoms. But we’ve also learned a lot of helpful information in the past few months: Mask-wearing may not protect you from getting the virus entirely, but it could keep you from getting seriously ill. That means you shouldn’t just wear a mask to protect others—you should do it for your own sake. Especially as states begin to reopen, it will be crucial to take whatever precautions we can.

[veale2006-blog]

The Lancet Study Used by the WHO to Stop HCQ Trials Has Been Retracted Q !!Hs1Jq13jV6 4 Jun 2020 - 4:45:35 PM https://twitter.com/jeremyfaust/status/1268615125323272192📁 When media and [D] elected officials [coordinate] [knowingly] attempt to prevent a 'medically verifiable' solution [prevention] re: COVID-19 [prev_death] we enter a STATE OF CRISIS. When [D] elected officials [coordinate] [knowingly] push COVID-19 positive 'elderly' patients into nursing homes [HOT SPOT(s)_ most at risk] we enter a STATE OF CRISIS. Your life means nothing to them [sheep]. You are a vote when it matters and a dollar sign when it does not. Q

[ronnychieng]

RT @jeremyfaust: Dear Everyone, The reason South Korea has so many cases isn’t that they prevented spread. It’s that they *detected* the spread. They tested hundreds of thousands of people, including asymptomatic + mild cases. That’s HOW you do it. Their death rate (0.6%) is a better estimate

Dear Everyone, The reason South Korea has so many cases isn’t that they prevented spread. It’s that they *detected* the spread. They tested hundreds of thousands of people, including asymptomatic + mild cases. That’s HOW you do it. Their death rate (0.6%) is a better estimate

— Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) March 6, 2020

via Twitter https://twitter.com/ronnychieng March 09, 2020 at 05:19AM

[laurenjohnson437]

4th of July: Holiday or hazard?

4th of July: Holiday or hazard?

America is confusing. To celebrate the birth of our nation, we eat hot dogs first created in Germany, set off fireworks invented in China, and listen to European-style orchestras play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture commemorating a Russian military triumph (i.e., not the one the United States fought in that year), replete with the precisely-timed firing of 16 cannons, a weapon which, incidentally, was first used in battle by — you guessed it — the very nation from which we dissolved our political bonds in the first place: the English. Perhaps as a nation of immigrants that likes to appropriate any and all cultural practices it so desires, this all makes sense. As an emergency physician though, I see potential medical hazards everywhere I look. Let’s look at these 4th of July risks in reverse order.

Protect your ears

If you’ve decided to attend an outdoor 4th of July concert, try not sitting too close to any rows of cannons that might be present. Even though they won’t be using live ammunition, that won’t protect your eardrums. In fact, in serious blast injuries, the eardrums are often the first anatomic structure to be damaged. Eardrum (tympanic membrane) ruptures usually heal on their own, but they need evaluation by an emergency physician with close follow-up by an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Hearing loss, vertigo, and rarely even nerve injury can occur. Outdoor concerts of all kinds are often over-amplified. Use earplugs, especially if you are seated or standing near large speakers.

Be cautious around fireworks

Fourth of July is almost synonymous with fireworks. Unfortunately, fireworks are a significant source of injury. In fact, over a quarter of fires started by fireworks for the entire year occur on Independence Day. While illegal firecrackers are a significant cause of injury, many are surprised to learn that hand-held sparklers are the most common cause of fireworks-related emergency department visits. Hand and finger injuries are the most common, but head, face, eye, and ear injuries account for 38%; burns are the most common issue. Teens are at high risk, but children under 5 account for almost 10% of these injuries. Supervision is required, but will not protect children (or adults) against all injuries.

4th of July food hazards

And then there’s America’s genuine pastime. No, not baseball — eating. July 4th barbecues are a tradition. Naturally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an entire page devoted to barbecue-related food safety. From hygiene tips to food preparation guidance, this page is guaranteed to both keep you safe and inspire extreme paranoia. Additionally, there’s the known, if somewhat bizarre, phenomenon of accidental ingestion of small metallic wires inadvertently detached from grill brushes. These wires have a tendency to hide in meat, and then show up in the gastrointestinal tracts of unsuspecting diners, causing discomfort and, occasionally, even esophageal or intestinal perforation. Apparently, men more commonly need treatment (which can include surgery) for swallowed grill brush wires than women. While there is absolutely no evidence for why this is true, I’m going to speculate it is because men don’t chew their food adequately. (Let’s face it, you don’t need to be a doctor to acknowledge that this is completely accurate!)

Far more likely than freak grill brush-related injuries, though, are typical choke hazards, of which hot dogs are a major culprit. This is no laughing matter. The Heimlich maneuver can save a life. Fortunately, choking on watermelon seeds, especially among children, is likely becoming less common. And that’s thanks to the innovations of a 20th-century plant scientist from Goshen, Indiana, the late O.J. Eigsti. May I present to you a July 4th tradition that is tasty, safe, and unlike most of the things we do to celebrate the holiday, actually of American origin: ladies and gentlemen, the seedless watermelon.

Follow me on Twitter @JeremyFaust

https://ift.tt/2IL6tJL

[sofiawright4411]

4th of July: Holiday or hazard?

4th of July: Holiday or hazard?

America is confusing. To celebrate the birth of our nation, we eat hot dogs first created in Germany, set off fireworks invented in China, and listen to European-style orchestras play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture commemorating a Russian military triumph (i.e., not the one the United States fought in that year), replete with the precisely-timed firing of 16 cannons, a weapon which, incidentally, was first used in battle by — you guessed it — the very nation from which we dissolved our political bonds in the first place: the English. Perhaps as a nation of immigrants that likes to appropriate any and all cultural practices it so desires, this all makes sense. As an emergency physician though, I see potential medical hazards everywhere I look. Let’s look at these 4th of July risks in reverse order.

Protect your ears

If you’ve decided to attend an outdoor 4th of July concert, try not sitting too close to any rows of cannons that might be present. Even though they won’t be using live ammunition, that won’t protect your eardrums. In fact, in serious blast injuries, the eardrums are often the first anatomic structure to be damaged. Eardrum (tympanic membrane) ruptures usually heal on their own, but they need evaluation by an emergency physician with close follow-up by an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Hearing loss, vertigo, and rarely even nerve injury can occur. Outdoor concerts of all kinds are often over-amplified. Use earplugs, especially if you are seated or standing near large speakers.

Be cautious around fireworks

Fourth of July is almost synonymous with fireworks. Unfortunately, fireworks are a significant source of injury. In fact, over a quarter of fires started by fireworks for the entire year occur on Independence Day. While illegal firecrackers are a significant cause of injury, many are surprised to learn that hand-held sparklers are the most common cause of fireworks-related emergency department visits. Hand and finger injuries are the most common, but head, face, eye, and ear injuries account for 38%; burns are the most common issue. Teens are at high risk, but children under 5 account for almost 10% of these injuries. Supervision is required, but will not protect children (or adults) against all injuries.

4th of July food hazards

And then there’s America’s genuine pastime. No, not baseball — eating. July 4th barbecues are a tradition. Naturally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an entire page devoted to barbecue-related food safety. From hygiene tips to food preparation guidance, this page is guaranteed to both keep you safe and inspire extreme paranoia. Additionally, there’s the known, if somewhat bizarre, phenomenon of accidental ingestion of small metallic wires inadvertently detached from grill brushes. These wires have a tendency to hide in meat, and then show up in the gastrointestinal tracts of unsuspecting diners, causing discomfort and, occasionally, even esophageal or intestinal perforation. Apparently, men more commonly need treatment (which can include surgery) for swallowed grill brush wires than women. While there is absolutely no evidence for why this is true, I’m going to speculate it is because men don’t chew their food adequately. (Let’s face it, you don’t need to be a doctor to acknowledge that this is completely accurate!)

Far more likely than freak grill brush-related injuries, though, are typical choke hazards, of which hot dogs are a major culprit. This is no laughing matter. The Heimlich maneuver can save a life. Fortunately, choking on watermelon seeds, especially among children, is likely becoming less common. And that’s thanks to the innovations of a 20th-century plant scientist from Goshen, Indiana, the late O.J. Eigsti. May I present to you a July 4th tradition that is tasty, safe, and unlike most of the things we do to celebrate the holiday, actually of American origin: ladies and gentlemen, the seedless watermelon.

Follow me on Twitter @JeremyFaust

https://ift.tt/2IL6tJL

[mhealthb007]

America is confusing. To celebrate the birth of our nation, we eat hot dogs first created in Germany, set off fireworks invented in China, and listen to European-style orchestras play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture commemorating a Russian military triumph (i.e., not the one the United States fought in that year), replete with the precisely-timed firing of 16 cannons, a weapon which, incidentally, was first used in battle by — you guessed it — the very nation from which we dissolved our political bonds in the first place: the English. Perhaps as a nation of immigrants that likes to appropriate any and all cultural practices it so desires, this all makes sense. As an emergency physician though, I see potential medical hazards everywhere I look. Let’s look at these 4th of July risks in reverse order.

Protect your ears

If you’ve decided to attend an outdoor 4th of July concert, try not sitting too close to any rows of cannons that might be present. Even though they won’t be using live ammunition, that won’t protect your eardrums. In fact, in serious blast injuries, the eardrums are often the first anatomic structure to be damaged. Eardrum (tympanic membrane) ruptures usually heal on their own, but they need evaluation by an emergency physician with close follow-up by an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Hearing loss, vertigo, and rarely even nerve injury can occur. Outdoor concerts of all kinds are often over-amplified. Use earplugs, especially if you are seated or standing near large speakers.

Be cautious around fireworks

Fourth of July is almost synonymous with fireworks. Unfortunately, fireworks are a significant source of injury. In fact, over a quarter of fires started by fireworks for the entire year occur on Independence Day. While illegal firecrackers are a significant cause of injury, many are surprised to learn that hand-held sparklers are the most common cause of fireworks-related emergency department visits. Hand and finger injuries are the most common, but head, face, eye, and ear injuries account for 38%; burns are the most common issue. Teens are at high risk, but children under 5 account for almost 10% of these injuries. Supervision is required, but will not protect children (or adults) against all injuries.

4th of July food hazards

And then there’s America’s genuine pastime. No, not baseball — eating. July 4th barbecues are a tradition. Naturally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an entire page devoted to barbecue-related food safety. From hygiene tips to food preparation guidance, this page is guaranteed to both keep you safe and inspire extreme paranoia. Additionally, there’s the known, if somewhat bizarre, phenomenon of accidental ingestion of small metallic wires inadvertently detached from grill brushes. These wires have a tendency to hide in meat, and then show up in the gastrointestinal tracts of unsuspecting diners, causing discomfort and, occasionally, even esophageal or intestinal perforation. Apparently, men more commonly need treatment (which can include surgery) for swallowed grill brush wires than women. While there is absolutely no evidence for why this is true, I’m going to speculate it is because men don’t chew their food adequately. (Let’s face it, you don’t need to be a doctor to acknowledge that this is completely accurate!)

Far more likely than freak grill brush-related injuries, though, are typical choke hazards, of which hot dogs are a major culprit. This is no laughing matter. The Heimlich maneuver can save a life. Fortunately, choking on watermelon seeds, especially among children, is likely becoming less common. And that’s thanks to the innovations of a 20th-century plant scientist from Goshen, Indiana, the late O.J. Eigsti. May I present to you a July 4th tradition that is tasty, safe, and unlike most of the things we do to celebrate the holiday, actually of American origin: ladies and gentlemen, the seedless watermelon.

Follow me on Twitter @JeremyFaust

The post 4th of July: Holiday or hazard? appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

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