If you have Medicare and want to be tested for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Trump Administration has good news. Medicare covers tests with no out-of-pocket costs. You can get tested in your home, doctor’s office, a local pharmacy or hospital, a nursing home, or a drive-through site. Medicare...

Ray Bradbury was a renowned science fiction writer with whom I share common memories: Los Angeles High School. He graduated 30 years before, and rumor had it, he failed English. Prior to passing away in 2012, we met in Santa Clarita, so I was able to ask the daunting question: “Did you fail English?”...

Every morning I check my temperature, blood pressure and oxygen level. A pulse oximeter measures this from the fingertip. Typically, it is 95% (normal is above 90%). After a few deep breaths, it goes up to 99%. Expanding the lungs after being in bed all night gets more oxygen into the body. Simple. Getting...

He was a stay-at-home dad. She parlayed hidden talents into a family-supporting career. Both were gifted. He played in a ‘60s California rock band that opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, then cared for the kids while she became a professional hairstylist for Hollywood stars. Their life was never...

First, older adults are funneled into nursing homes. Then, if one gets ill, they claim you’ve lived a good life, but now you have to sacrifice your spot in the world for someone younger. Some of these seniors won wars for us, some were first responders, some taught generations of children, and some...

A recent explosion burned many first responding Los Angeles City firefighters. News media personnel were at the scene and at the emergency room entrance where victims were taken. Family members were already there, distraught and grasping for contact as firefighters were wheeled into the hospital knowing...

The recent White House COVID-19 test accuracy for personnel (including the president) reveals that about 48 percent of results might be incorrect, although this is relatively similar to regular flu testing. Inaccuracies in testing should not be acceptable, but they are, and they are allowable. Statistics...

During the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, no one was told to have six feet of separation, wear N-95 masks, or obtain a swab or blood antibody test to determine if they had the disease. The science and technology of 1918 are ancient, while every day new information about COVID-19 is revealed. Studies are...

Hospitals are content to bar families from visiting their loved ones. With COVID-19 easily transmissible, this persistent reason by hospital administrators to exempt visitation allows medical care rendered not to be publicly scrutinized. No doubt, everyone is traveling an unfamiliar road, developing...

At the beginning of the pandemic in Italy, the country was inundated with critically ill patients. Overwhelmed by numbers and a lack of ventilator equipment, choices had to be made as to who would be given a chance to live, or who would be relegated to die. Patient age became a factor. Arrival in an...