Author – The Durango Herald

Head and Neck Cancer

Joe Howard was a good man. As a child, he would intermittently visit my home to chat with my mom. We knew him as “Uncle Buster.” He’d been a chef in restaurants from Kentucky to New York Ci...

DATE: Feb 24, 2023 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Opioid Harm Reduction

Lately, we have all been steeped in the public health jargon of pandemics, epidemics, and public health emergencies. In the last few years, COVID and more recently, mpox, have often dominate...

DATE: Jan 26, 2023 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

New year holds promise of new start

Perhaps like me you see the end of the year as a time for reflection – an opportunity to assess what has recently passed and the lessons that have been learned. I find it is a time also to b...

DATE: Dec 24, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Respiratory viral season is here

If you are like our family, visits to the tissue aisle at the grocery store have been up this year. Yes, COVID-19 is still a thing, but I’m talking more generally about respiratory viral sea...

DATE: Nov 25, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Have you considered colon screening?

As a primary care physician, I have long been an advocate of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in my patients. So, I read with interest a recent publication in the New England Jour...

DATE: Oct 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Bivalent COVID-19 vaccine can ‘turbo charge’ immunity

If you are like a lot of people, you may be wondering whether you are due for a COVID-19 vaccine booster? The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020 was a critical step in stemming t...

DATE: Sep 24, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

As monkeypox spreads, know the signs, symptoms

Perhaps you have heard about the global outbreak of monkeypox, which started in the spring? Earlier this month, the United States declared this outbreak a public health emergency. To date, ...

DATE: Aug 27, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Call 988 for direct access to mental health support

People suffering a mental health crisis have a new resource to seek help. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the new 988 mental health lifel...

DATE: Jul 30, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Vaccine crucial for protecting young children from COVID-19

Many parents of young children have been anxiously awaiting authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for those younger than 5. Their wait is over. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration acte...

DATE: Jun 25, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

As cases rise, expanding COVID-19 vaccine access will help

Where do we stand with COVID-19 vaccinations? I have been fielding many questions in the past couple of months about the national COVID-19 vaccine strategy. To put things in perspective, we ...

DATE: May 28, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Mental health care a key aspect of pandemic recovery

I’ve been talking and writing recently about the indirect health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virushas had a profound ...

DATE: Apr 23, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Pandemic stress affected our daily health choices

In February, I discussed the broad spectrum of indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual and public health. These range from impacts on mental health to accessing chronic dise...

DATE: Mar 26, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch