UNDER THE MICROSCOPE It has been three years since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Early on, there was a lot of fear, anxiety, and phobias about the disease because it was an unknown entity. Most persons who contracted it at the start succumbed to it or had a critical, lengthy stay in intensive care...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Pardon me if I’m politically incorrect when discussing obesity, but there are no ifs and buts about being overweight. No matter how you say it — fat, overweight, plump, ample, chubby, tubby, big, or plus-size — being over your ideal weight for height has health...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Ageism is defined as stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against people on the basis of their age (WHO 2017). It is a fairly recent concept, coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, patterned after the concept of sexism and...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Our esteemed lawmakers are at this time proposing to build more penal facilities. They cite extreme overcrowding in our jails and even quote the UN minimum standards for detention facilities and 1987 Constitution, which “vehemently opposes the use of substandard or...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Nitrous oxide is known as the laughing gas for its effect when inhaled in certain quantities. So I had to laugh when I read a front-page story last week that the PNP is considering to include it in its list of dangerous substances. Nitrous oxide is a gas that is used as an...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE On May 5, 2023, the WHO declared an end to the Covid-19 health emergency. While this is reason to celebrate, having endured three years of various restrictions, we have to pause and consider the repercussions on the testing labs. To combat the pandemic, over 300 Covid-19...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Summer is upon us and with it comes the usual complaint: “Walang tubig!” Our water authorities have imposed water rationing once more, with the threat of longer periods of dry taps due to the rapidly declining water levels at the La Mesa and Angat Dams. Construction of the...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE A 14-year-old student recently collapsed while playing football and died. It was attributed to heat stroke, since temperatures were starting to rise to heat-wave levels. But was it really heat stroke? Or did he have another cause of death? Young men engaging in sports even in...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Earth Hour has come and gone. But what about the other 8,759 hours of the year? We seem to be fixated on the ceremonial observances of environment-saving practices rather than being genuinely concerned about saving Mother Earth. There are many aspects to environment protection:...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Retirement issues are once again in the news. A House bill proposes lowering the optional retirement age to 56. Another bill seeks to scrap the mandatory retirement age, which now stands at 65 years of age. This topic stirs up personal feelings for me, having been mandatorily...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Lasers have been very much in the limelight since it was alleged that a Chinese Coast Guard ship trained a laser beam on a Philippine Coast Guard ship that was on a re-supply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in the West Philippine Sea. This incident temporarily...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo In the aftermath of the blowup about the improper autopsies done on the anti-illegal drugs campaign victim Kian delos Santos, it was front-page news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has reached an agreement with United Nations special rapporteur Morris...
