Paul E. Sax
Contributing Editor at NEJM Journal Watch
Editor-in-Chief/Clinical Director at Clinical Infection in Practice
Harvard/Brigham Infectious Diseases doctor, writer, @CIDJournal editor, educator. Prefer baseball to football, pizza to sushi, dogs to cats, Beatles to Stones.
Articles
-
1 week ago |
blogs.jwatch.org | Paul E. Sax
Before getting to today's main topic, allow me a brief protest - three recent vaccine-related actions that reek of profound (and misguided) vaccine distrust from HHS leadership. They are:So painful. (Deep breath.)Ok, on with the main topic of today's post. In Part 1 of this series, I described how ID doctors earn their income through direct patient care - consults, outpatient visits, and (less commonly) procedures. But clinical care is not the only source of salary support for our specialty.
-
2 weeks ago |
blogs.jwatch.org | Paul E. Sax
In case you missed it, last week the FDA granted full approval for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine, which uses a more traditional protein-plus-adjuvant strategy instead of the mRNA approach of Pfizer and Moderna, is no longer in "Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)" limbo. Here's what that means in practical terms: It shows the data the company submitted were sufficiently favorable from a safety and efficacy standpoint to merit full approval.
-
3 weeks ago |
blogs.jwatch.org | Paul E. Sax
Two decades ago, Dr. Atul Gawande wrote a memorable piece for The New Yorker about how doctors in the United States get paid. Providing a nice mix of self-reflection about his own experience and some skillful reporting, he described the challenging process of figuring out what he, a newly hired surgeon, should earn for a salary. Why challenging? Most people are squeamish about saying how much they earn, but in medicine the situation seems especially fraught.
-
1 month ago |
blogs.jwatch.org | Paul E. Sax
Those of us who follow infectious diseases and vaccine science closely (OK, obsessively) know that the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) plays an enormous role in public health. Vaccines, gene therapies, monoclonal antibodies, blood products - all pass through CBER on their path to approval.
-
1 month ago |
blogs.jwatch.org | Paul E. Sax
First-year ID fellows this time of year bring a lot to inpatient consult rotations. Years of high-volume inpatient care have sharpened their clinical instincts, and at this point they have an impressive fund of ID knowledge.
Try JournoFinder For Free
Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.
Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →X (formerly Twitter)
- Followers
- 57K
- Tweets
- 5K
- DMs Open
- No
Latest FDA actions on Covid vaccines: 1. Novavax approved: 👏 2. Narrowed indications for all vaccines: ➕/➖ 3. Called for more clinical trials:👍 Thoughts about what this might mean -- and 100% agree we need updated data to inform clinical practice. https://t.co/S1bLJyfyXe
We love what we do. But yes, we’d also like to get paid. ID is a cognitive, consult-heavy specialty -- and often a “loss leader” in a fee-for-service world. A look at how the money actually flows (or doesn’t), Part 1. h/t @ronnahass @BradSpellberg 👇 https://t.co/mhv7mRhjrz
The new head of FDA’s CBER, @VPrasadMDMPH, is undoubtedly brilliant. He'll oversee vaccines, gene Rx, monoclonal Abs, & blood products. Let's hope he can get along well enough with others to be an effective leader -- the stakes are pretty darn high! https://t.co/jD8JtAjWM4
