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A Win for Vaccines, but Worries Remain

Doctors who offer easy exemptions could undermine efforts to rein in the antivaccine crowd. In a growing number of states, parents can no longer refuse to immunize their children due to conflicting “personal beliefs”—at least not if they want their children to attend school. California recently joined West Virginia and Mississippi in requiring a medical […]

Measles Hit Hollywood Amid Vaccination Battle

We have entered the trenches of the vaccine wars. Last fall, the startlingly low immunization rates in our not-so-tinseled town were made public. Many people learned that schools in the most affluent Los Angeles communities had extremely low immunization rates, matching those of South Sudan, and it more than raised some eyebrows. The pro-vaxx/anti-vaxx battles […]

Debunking Common Covid-19 Vaccine Myths

Dr. Nina Shapiro clears up our questions about the Covid-19 vaccines If trying to keep up with Covid-19 news and findings has your head spinning, you’re not alone. The World Health Organization has dubbed the constant flood of information, whether true or false, an “infodemic” that is leaving people confused and unsure of where to […]

The vaccine rollout has been slow and complicated, but you can help…

Here’s how people are volunteering. For several hours on Tuesday, Nina Shapiro chatted with people who had just gotten a coronavirus vaccine. Shapiro, a surgeon and professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UCLA, was volunteering at a mass drive-through vaccination site in Los Angeles County, assessing patients for at least 15 […]

Patients are patients, even anti-lockdown protesters

By Nina Shapiro  May 11, 2020 at 3:38 p.m. CDT Nina Shapiro, a physician and professor of surgery at UCLA, is the author of “Hype: A Doctor’s Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims and Bad Advice — How to Tell What’s Real and What’s Not.” As the covid-19 death toll in the United States rises, protests against pandemic mitigation measures […]

How Do Ventilators Actually Work?

We asked a doctor at UCLA to break it down for us. Amid talk of ventilator shortages, our Wake-Up Call newsletter (subscribe here) is examining how these live-saving machines actually work. Dr. Nina Shapiro, a pediatric airway surgeon at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, explains how health care professionals manage the subtleties of ventilators — and […]

We came to work for you. Please stay home for us

The numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the novel coronavirus are mind-blowing, even to the most seasoned health-care professionals. Every day, we see the latest version of the upward curve, hoping to one day see it “flatten.” But it’s not going to happen today — and not tomorrow. We’ve seen images of college students […]

Meet the Controversial Doctor Behind the Dr. Phil Empire

Frank Lawlis possesses a deep Texas drawl, one that makes the now-iconic intonation of Dr. Phil McGraw — his decades-long friend and business associate — seem almost city-slicker by comparison. His down-home voice, along with the bolo ties, pale eyes and unkempt white hair, are a comfort to the clients who travel to his private […]

In Search of Snoring Solutions

Snoring by itself is not dangerous, but it can have serious social consequences. Like clockwork, the sound of the freight train came roaring through our bedroom in the middle of each night. Or at least what sounded like a freight train. In reality, it was me, snoring. And according to my wife, that freight train […]

Hype: Dispelling Medical Myths | #UCLAWOWSummit