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A Dose of the Mother
Sena had another dietary brainstorm and bought something called apple cider vinegar. Warning: it contains a substance called “the mother.” I’m not sure what the mother is, exactly, but I’m concerned that it might be something that would turn up as the main creature on a Svengoolie show movie. By the way, tonight it’s the…
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Current Kratom and Psilocybin Legislative Action in Iowa
I just saw an excellent post from Dr. George Dawson, MD, DFAPA on Kratom. His emphasis that the risk for harm from this substance should be “…remembered at every policy debate.” I agree. This reminds me of what happened in the Iowa Legislature this term at the second funnel regarding substances with the potential for…
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Waiting for the Second Funnel in Iowa Legislature on Anti Vaccination Bills 2026
I’ve been trying to track the two anti-vaccination bills heading into the 2nd funnel in Iowa and I guess I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow’s news reports. One of them is HF 2171 which would eliminate Iowa’s requirement that children in grades K-12 receive vaccines before they can attend school. The other is SF…
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CDC ACIP Meeting Postponed for Today and Tomorrow
I missed the recent notice in the last couple of days that the CDC ACIP meeting was postponed for today and tomorrow. Me and more than a couple dozen people were kept waiting for a half hour before I got suspicious and looked it up. There’s a CIDRAP story posted yesterday that explains the “delay.”…
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Ivermectin Bill Looks Like It’s Dead-For Now
This is a quick followup on the progress of Governor Reynolds MAHA bill which included a piece endorsing making Ivermectin available over-the-counter in Iowa. I just read a story about what looks like the disappearance of the ivermectin from Reynold’s bill. The story, written by Laura Belin, comes from a webpage called Bleeding Heartland: An…
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Rash of Bigfoot Sightings in Ohio, So What About Iowa?
Actually, I should refer to the multiple sightings of Bigfoot as a flap. That’s proper terminology. The news story shows a video with the cryptid on it although I think it looks more like somebody smeared a chocolate bar on the camera lens. There’s an organization called Bigfoot Society that is tracking the story. The…
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CDC ACIP Meeting Scheduled for March 18, 19 2026
It’s been a while since the last CDC ACIP meeting. It’s scheduled for March 18, 2026, 8 AM to 5 PM EST and March 19, 2026, 8 AM to 5 PM EST, according the notice on the Federal Register. There are over 1500 comments and the one I thought was the best was by the…
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Clinical Problems in Consultation Psychiatry and The Break-Dancing Koala Bear
I ran across an old Clinical Problems in Consultation Psychiatry (CPCP) presentation by a couple of sharp medical students in 2014. They presented it at one of my morning consult rounds and it’s about Charles Bonnet Syndrome. They did a very nice job and it compares fairly well with the University of Iowa Ophthalmology Dept…
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Do We Really Need Artificial Intelligence to Help People Who Are Demoralized?
I was just going through the many files on one of my old thumb drives that I still keep after I retired from consultation-liaison psychiatry over 5 years ago. I found a file that I must have typed from a source on how to help medically ill persons who are demoralized. Demoralization is not the…
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Oppose Iowa Legislature Bill HF 2171 That Seeks to Eliminate Vaccine Requirements in Public Schools
I have been reading the public comments on the Iowa Legislature bill HF 2171 that, if passed, would eliminate the requirement for vaccines in public schools against many diseases such as poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, rubeola, rubella, and varicella. People are overwhelmingly opposed to it and it’s beyond me how it got past the first…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 