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'Living Through My Worst Nightmare': 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

"We've just been living through my worst nightmare." -- Anthony Fauci, MD, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recounting the early days of the COVID pandemic.

"If people don't trust us, it doesn't matter -- we're talking to ourselves." -- Roy Perlis, MD, MSc, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, on research showing trust in physicians dropped sharply during the pandemic.

"They require urgent attention from a qualified provider and not a heating pad." -- Carolyn Sufrin, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, discussing correctional officers who dismiss the concerns of women going into labor.

"What we have demonstrated is that there's a hint it can improve cognition." -- Paul Edison, MD, PhD, of Imperial College London, on an early study testing a GLP-1 agonist in mild Alzheimer's dementia.

"In 2 years after buying a hospital, private equity firms stripped away $28 million worth of assets from each hospital, on average." -- Elizabeth Schrier, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, discussing the financial impact of private equity takeovers of hospitals.

"We're the ones who swear the oath to our patients." -- Robert McNamara, MD, of Temple University in Philadelphia, describing how corporate interests in medicine are often not aligned with physicians.

"It's still a controversial diagnosis." -- Aravindhan Veerapandiyan, MD, of Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, on pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome.

"That sounds very impressive, 20%, but it's misleading." -- Diana Zuckerman, PhD, of the National Center for Health Research in Washington, D.C., discussing the heart benefits of semaglutide (Wegovy) for patients who are overweight and have preexisting cardiovascular disease.

"I'm so glad the FDA put out this warning." -- Margaretta Masse, MD, of Northwell Health in New York, on the agency's safety alert on retailer-sold chemical peels that contain high concentrations of acids that can cause serious burns.