‘The Nose Is the Front Door of the Brain’: What We Heard This Week

— Quotable quotes heard by MedPage Today‘s reporters

by
MedPage Today Staff

October 8, 2023

“The nose is the front door of the brain.” — Ray Dorsey, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, describing how inhaled toxicants may play a role in the development of Parkinson’s and other brain diseases.

“He’s going to walk out with a golden parachute we all paid for.” — Westby Fisher, MD, of NorthShore Medical Group in Illinois, discussing the upcoming retirement of American Board of Internal Medicine CEO Richard Baron, MD.

“These middlemen now don’t get paid for a dose until it goes into someone’s arm and insurance kicks in.” — David Freedman, MD, FIDSA, of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, on factors contributing to availability issues with the updated COVID vaccines.

“We dread the thought of treating very sick children — or their parents — who develop vaccine preventable illnesses.” — Nick Sawyer, MD, a Sacramento-area emergency room doctor, discussing the repeal of California’s medical misinformation law.

“We don’t want to just scare women.” — Rebecca Thurston, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, on a study linking nighttime vasomotor symptoms with worse Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers.

“You need to have everything in your emergency department, just in case of that 1%.” — Maria Garcia-Lloret, MD, of UCLA Health, on safely conducting penicillin allergy challenges.

“If a patient of that age group is coming to you with a mental health concern, it’s very likely that they have consumed mental health content on social media.” — Willough Jenkins, MD, of Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, on the latest TikTok trend of Gen Z’ers using shadow work journals.

“The results were surprising for smoking people with normal lung function.” — Alejandro Diaz, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School, on a study finding that the mortality risk associated with bronchiectasis extends beyond patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.