Dear Readers: Every year I step away from my column briefly to work on other creative projects. (Anyone interested in my personal essays and photographs can subscribe to my free newsletter: amydickinson.substack.com).
Dear Dr. Roach: I was wondering if you could explain why some vaccinations seem to completely protect against a disease, while others do not. For example, smallpox was completely eradicated by vaccination, and the hepatitis B vaccine is good for life and 98% to 100% effective, according to the World Health Organization. Yet we need to have the flu vaccine each year. I understand that is partly due to different strains of flu that come through, and of course we have the coronavirus vaccine, which ... I hope you can see where this question is going. I think an understanding of the vaccines we have and how they work would be extremely beneficial to all. -- M.S.
Q: My father is slated to have robotic surgery to fix a leaky mitral valve in his heart. They say it’s going to be minimally invasive. What does that mean? And is it really safe to have a robot poking around inside a person’s heart? -- Gerry F., Franklin, Tennessee
Today is Sunday, March 27, the 86th day of 2022. There are 279 days left in the year.
Dear Dr. Roach: At a recent visit with my ear, nose and throat doctor, he commented that frequent use of antihistamines with decongestants can lead to blocked eustachian tubes. Is that statement correct?
Let’s take a trip back in time. How far? Let’s say, a couple of thousand years. That’s the premise of a play that one rural Kansas community performs live on Easter Sunday, using a remarkable stone outcropping as a natural stage.
Today is Wednesday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2022. There are 283 days left in the year.
Today is Tuesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2022. There are 284 days left in the year.
United Women’s Empowerment (United WE), a nonprofit organization based in Kansas City, and the Institute for Policy and Social Research at the University of Kansas released a report earlier this month showing that gender inequality has grown in our state since 2016.
In 1969-70, I was a Navy disc jockey at the American Forces Vietnam Network in Saigon. Weekdays I wrote copy for radio commercials, pithy stuff warning our guys in the jungle to avoid being bitten by poisonous snakes. Army corporal Pat Sajak was our resident snake voice, who mockingly suggested on tape that soldiers should not bite snakes, either.