‘We Stared at the Data for a Long Time Partly in Disbelief’: What We Heard This Week

“We stared at the data for a long time partly in disbelief.” — Douglas Mann, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, on how sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto) didn’t appear to help patients with advanced heart failure when compared with an angiotensin receptor blocker alone.

“I think asking people to just sort of go with this guidance at the drop of a hat was really a bombshell, and certainly didn’t give public health authorities or institutional authorities time to prepare.” — Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, discussing the mistakes in how the CDC announced their new mask guidance.

“It is time to take a hard look at our policies and show our surgical trainees the dignity, humanity, and respect that they deserve in the same way that all of our patients deserve that level of protection.” — Cornelia Griggs, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, discussing an open letter asking the American Board of Surgery to update its family leave policy to include at least 6 weeks of parental leave during surgical training.

“Across the board, it was all what you’d see in a normal person.” — Robert Montgomery, MD, of NYU Langone in New York City who is both a transplant surgeon and heart transplant recipient, after a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine produced a robust antibody response.

“We have found just the opposite with the COVID-19 vaccine, where the effectiveness is easily as good, if not better, in real-world settings.” — NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, MD, discussing new evidence against circulating variants.