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'Not Clear if the Juice Is Worth the Squeeze': What We Heard This Week

— Quotable quotes heard by Ƶ's reporters

Ƶ MedicalToday
A female reporter holding two microphones takes notes on a pad

"It's not clear if the juice is worth the squeeze here for taking out a gallbladder." -- Stanley Kalata, MD, MS, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, on research that detected more bile duct injury with robotic-assisted versus laparoscopic cholecystectomies.

"Accurate fluid biomarkers, especially if they can be measured in blood, would be much more cost-effective and scalable." -- Oskar Hansson, MD, PhD, of Lund University in Sweden, on the search for new ways to detect Parkinsonian disorders.

"Misinformation kills, and there will be more pandemics in our lifetime." -- Regina Royan, MD, also of the University of Michigan, discussing Facebook's failed attempt to stamp out COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

"It was a very good idea and a nice try." -- William Schaffner, MD, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, after inhaled fluticasone furoate flopped for shortening COVID recovery time in outpatients.

"I'm also not convinced ... that we've seen the best version of this device." -- Robert Greevy, PhD, also of Vanderbilt University, after an FDA panel unanimously said the risks of an GLP-1 receptor agonist implant for diabetes outweigh its benefits.

"We are exposed to them every day." -- Melanie Jacobson, PhD, MPH, of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, on the link between prenatal exposure to common environmental chemicals and postpartum depression.

"Often, the fine print says that these tests are not meant to inform healthcare decision-making, which contradicts the marketing of many of these tests." -- Louiza Kalokairinou, PhD, of the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy in Houston, on ethical questions raised by direct-to-consumer laboratory tests.

"There is no 'danger' involved, just reduced potency." -- John Moore, PhD, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, on how B-cell responses to booster vaccines can be impeded by recent infection.