About the tragedy of the elderly besieged by the coronavirus. ‘Señores’ ―said Don Quixote― no so fast because in the nests of yesteryear there are no birds this year. Don Quixote (Chap. LXXIV) Dear all: While you are at home self-protecting from the crowned virus (Are you?), I died. I…

In the history of medicine, some issues caused great controversy when they surged. It usually occurs in science in general. Time is a great sculptor of life’s avatars. It usually resolves the conflicts, but, occasionally, some disputes are perennial. An excellent example of a non-resolved argument is Syphilis’s geographical origin…

The writing process is not always a creative art. — I want to vindicate a forgotten and excellent writer: Heinrich von Kleist. Literature, like life, is unjust and cruel on many occasions. When I speak of literature, I am referring to the creative art of oral or written expression. I compare literature to life because, according to John, the evangelist…

When the illness terminology is an aggression against the ‘other.’ — It is a long-established custom in international medical literature to define many infectious diseases with a geographical name. Sometimes it refers to a city (Marburg, in Germany) or town (Lyme, in Connecticut, USA). It can also be a country, state, or nation (Crimea, Democratic Republic of Congo) or a specific…

Are Omicron’s new sublineages so benign as they look? — Nothing more is happening during the current covid-19 pandemic, but the reality may say otherwise. The WHO has not yet closed the pandemic, and it seems it will take some time. Other international organizations and the authorities of many countries, especially in the western world, opted to end effective non-pharmacological…

Nihil novum sub sole (there’s nothing new under the Sun). — “We penetrate deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.” Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902). “Nihil novum sub sole” is a Latin expression (Ecclesiastes, 2–20). It reminds us that there is nothing new under the Sun. What now seems novel already existed before. It is our idleness that is…

A new database that can help us understand and analyze ‘spillover’ better. — If one searches Google for the word “zoonosis,” one can see that it is a subject that matters (31.900.000 results in 0.65 seconds). It is because it encompasses a multitude of fields, such as the scientific, health, epidemiological, social, economic, and political. And all are interesting. The relationship between viruses…

“The family is a precious treasure” (Pope Francis) — The Coronaviridae family keeps growing because viral generations follow one after the other. A similar process happens to human beings. In humans, it depends on many factors that can interact. But the viruses fulfill a mandate written in the species’ genome. The genetic selfishness I treat here refers to an…