UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo It was my usual Sunday morning being spent at home in the garden when my gardener came to me and tearfully said he has to go home because his younger sister committed suicide. We were in shock. She was only 20 years old. But her story isn’t isolated. I...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Amid the rising number of Covid cases, people are starting to feel anxious again, if not panicking outright. Sure, there’s a definite upward trend, but we’re still not seeing the number of hospitalizations and ICU occupancy that we saw in the initial and...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Dramatic as the Covid-19 pandemic is, we should remember that its death toll is dwarfed by that of HIV/AIDS, which has so far killed 36.3 million people since it started in 1980. Yet, we seem to have forgotten about this dreaded disease. It is still very much...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, we are now faced with another viral zoonotic (animal-transmitted) disease that threatens our health. Monkeypox virus is a member of the Poxviridae family, which includes smallpox. Before you panic, here’s a...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo The dust has cleared. The people have spoken. We will have a new president whose father preceded him 36 years ago. What is going to be interesting is how this new government will fare, considering the numerous challenges facing the Philippines. Can it cope...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo The last few days were anxiety-filled as the campaign season drew to a close. Everyone I spoke to had sleepless nights and so did I. Our fears were well-founded. The future is at stake. But we have done everything we could: organized Viber groups, raised...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Now that the election campaign is in its homestretch, we have seen the clearly defined and stark differences between the two leading candidates. One is running on the basis of his father’s supposed achievements while just sitting back and not enunciating his...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo It has become apparent that there has been a monumental shift in Philippine politics. The people have spoken. The traditional ways of political dynasties, patronage, and vote buying will no longer suffice. After decades of this never-ending cycle of investing...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo It took 40 days before Dr. Naty Castro, who was illegally arrested for kidnapping, was freed by Judge Fernando Fudalan Jr. He cited the PNP actions on her as “repugnant,” a very strong denunciation of how the legal system has been co-opted and weaponized...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Two Sundays ago, I dragged this 70-year-old body of mine to our meeting place at The Medical City, to be with my fellow pathologists and join the HEALTH Care Workers Unity Walk to the Pasiglaban rally. It was the first election rally I ever joined, and this...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Wow, I didn’t imagine I could cause such a furor over a tweet I sent two days ago. In it, I put a photo collage of an orchid hybrid I named after Vice President Leni Robredo with a comment: “Seven years from pollination to blooming. A labor of love for one...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Dr. Raymund W. Lo Most people don’t know what a pathologist is. They probably don’t even know we’re MDs. Pathologists work behind the scenes, diagnosing diseases like cancers on tissue biopsies, analyzing blood samples for even more diseases and supervising operations of...
