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Elleen Xue is inviting you to join AAMS' Medical Forum Topic: AAMS Medical Forum Aug 21 8:30AM - 10:30AM-Beijing Time Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9907...YkhNN1QveVdieE9TQT09 Meeting ID: 990 762 1376 Passcode: 123456 Guest Speaker: Professor Lei Xue: A Drosophila Ad Model And Its Applications (Tongji University, School of Life Science) Professor Zhang Li: What It’s Like in Interventional Cardiology (Professor of Medicine and Chief of Department of Cardiology at Xinhua Hospital）

2021.8 by Elleen Xue When the crystal ball isn’t so clear . . . . . . one looks to the murkiness in the sphere. Having one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one foot in the western one, in real time, afforded me a unique view of the pandemic. I know, I know, you have read a trillion articles on the pandemic (and here I take the liberty of using hyperbole by exaggerating by orders of magnitude the numbers of cases of the crown prince pestilence) but alas I digress… Just how was it that data...

August 2020 by Elleen Xue “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” – Albert Einstein, misattributed to Charles Darwin Perhaps one of the greatest intellectual challenges for me as budding scientist and aspiring physician was understanding the concept of “natural selection,” a term I feel perpetrates a great deal of misunderstanding in science, specifically the concept of evolution. I suspect this is the case because the idea of “selection” quite naturally conjures...

A new analysis of blood samples from 24,000 Americans taken early last year is the latest and largest study to suggest that the new coronavirus popped up in the U.S. in December 2019 — weeks before cases were first recognized by health officials. The analysis is not definitive, and some experts remain skeptical, but federal health officials are increasingly accepting a timeline in which small numbers of COVID-19 infections may have occurred in the U.S. before the world ever became aware of a...

2021.6 by Elleen Xue Today I decided to spook myself and take a break off the beaten track while hiking through nearby Grove Street Cemetery, where many local and university luminaries are buried. And there, in the furthest northwest corner, was a tract of plain-looking graves of renowned Yale professors, many of who died childless and never married. Then, as I stared down at the flickering and tremulous shadow of an elm leaf hovering over a name, I had a eureka moment. The grave was that of...

May 2021 by Elleen Xue Perusing the pages of my digital MIT Technology Review, my eyes became arrested by a photo of what seemed like a paradox: an image that looked as if an IKEA store had married a hospital, and I grew both puzzled and transfixed. For an Italian photo, this one was the least polychromatic I had ever seen. It was mostly black and white, with splashes of bold color only here and there, unlike the live Italy I was accustomed to on holidays with my parents. But what...

Feb 2021 by Elleen Xue “Life without art is torture.” – Caravaggio As the once in a century Coronavirus pandemic set it, I was essentially shut in. How would I pass the time? And luckily for me, I had some literature to help me get through it. The first book I turned to was a small, pocket book green hardcover of Albert Camus’s The Plague. Camus set the plight in Algeria around the turn of the 20th century and presaged many phenomenon I saw here. Beyond the emotions of panic and despair...

Remdesivir is an antiviral medication that targets a range of viruses. It was originally developed over a decade ago to treat hepatitis C and a cold-like virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Remdesivir wasn’t an effective treatment for either disease. But it showed promise against other viruses. Researchers tested remdesivir in clinical trials during the Ebola outbreak. Other investigational medications worked better, but it was shown to be safe for patients. Studies in cells and...

US-based health system Providence has reported that Gilead Sciences’ anti-viral drug, remdesivir, reduced mortality by 40% compared with best supportive care in hospitalised Covid-19 patients who were receiving low flow oxygen. The study had 286 subjects on remdesivir and 852 participants on best supportive care, with all of them enrolled between 28 February and 28 May last year. Nearly 400 subjects were given hydroxychloroquine as best supportive care in the study. Providence noted that the...

June 2020 By Elleen Xue The terror of this year’s novel coronavirus was something the world has never seen in that the last serious worldwide epidemic, unlike localized ones such as SARs and Ebola, played out on social media and television. This, combined with instantaneous communication and air travel, meant the virus was the first truly global pandemic to play out like a horror show. Most people sat glued to their television sets watching ominous death tolls mount as chyrons blared even...

April 2020 by Elleen Xue As a teenager who has grown up exposed to both Eastern and Western hemispheres, I’m usually caught in betwixt and in between the predominant sentiments expressed therein, and most recently found myself at odds with my family over the issue of the coronavirus. But more than just finding myself at odds with my them, I found myself at odds with China. Paying attention, of course, to the early days of the pandemic, one could not help but notice the extent to which China...

As confirmed cases of a novel virus surge around the world with worrisome speed, all eyes have so far focused on a seafood market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the outbreak. But a description of the first clinical cases published in The Lancet on Friday challenges that hypothesis. The paper, written by a large group of Chinese researchers from several institutions, offers details about the first 41 hospitalized patients who had confirmed infections with what has been dubbed 2019 novel...

Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into a mysterious viral pneumonia which has infected dozens of people in the central city of Wuhan. A total of 44 cases have been confirmed so far, 11 of which are considered "severe", officials said on Friday. The outbreak has prompted Singapore and Hong Kong to bring in screening processes for travellers from the city. It comes amid online fears the virus could be linked to Sars, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The potentially...

Health officials in China are investigating the cause of a pneumonia outbreak in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province that has sickened 27 people and seems to be linked to a seafood market. Government officials in Hong Kong and Taiwan detailed what's known from mainland sources, and infectious disease news reporting sites such as FluTrackers, Avian Flu Diary, and ProMED Mail have been tracking official and media reports. In a statement today, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP),...

Studies have suggested potential health benefits from long-term calorie restriction. In long-term calorie restriction, average daily caloric intake is kept below what is typical or habitual, but without malnutrition or deprivation of essential nutrients. Calorie restriction can be achieved through simply eating less overall, or through specific periods of fasting. One decades-long study in rhesus monkeys found an extension of lifespan with calorie restriction. However, another did not.