A Health System Disconnected and Conflicted in an Un-united United States.

Mike Magee Governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York have discovered the price for inefficiency and conflicts of interest in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic. As he said yesterday, “No one hospital has the resources to handle this. There has to be a totally different operating paradigm where all those different hospitals operate as […]

Is There a Genetic Pre-disposition to die of Covid-19?

Mike Magee As Donald Trump learned when he was forced finally to declare bankruptcy on his Atlantic City Trump Taj Mahal Casino, and as our second President, John Adams, said: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and […]

Work, Love, Courage – in Abundance.

Mike Magee This morning I listened to an interview of the President of Mass. General Hospital, Dr. Peter Slavin, as he outlined the reality of Covid-19 and the challenges faced by his nurses, doctors and health professionals during this crisis. In his words, I found pride in having been part of the caring professions whose […]

The Trump Easter Celebration – Resurrecting The Economy?

Mike Magee New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, was sufficiently disturbed by President Trump’s suggestion that our nation needlessly sacrifice American lives to protect the American economy with a quick return to work by Easter, that he turned to his old friend, Michael Sandel, legendary political philosopher at Harvard for reassurance. As many of us […]

Confronting Presidential Out-ertia.

Mike Magee “All change of matter has an external cause. (Every body remains in its state of rest or motion in the same direction and with the same velocity, if not compelled by an external cause to forsake this state.) … This mechanical law can only be called the law of inertia (lex inertiæ) Immanuel […]

David Brooks on COVID-19 Response: Beware of Dread.

Mike Magee On March 12th, New York Times columnist David Brooks indulged in a moment of existential reflection when he wrote, “Frank Snowden, the Yale historian who wrote ‘Epidemics and Society,’ argues that pandemics hold up a mirror to society and force us to ask basic questions: What is possible imminent death trying to tell […]

A “CODE BLUE” Moment – Crisis In A Broken Health Care System.

Mike Magee In the opening pages of “CODE BLUE: Inside the Medical Industrial Complex”, I wrote: “When Donald Trump expressed his cluelessness—’nobody knew that health care could be so complicated’—before a meeting of state governors in February 2017, he was exposing a pattern of both arrogance and ignorance that is now on full display. Most […]

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