Speaker 1:
0:00
Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by Angkor Research Group. Each Monday morning, dr Michael Coran calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and health care. This is MedEvidence.
Speaker 2:
0:30
So some music amateurs out there might think that's the music of the Beach Boys, but of course Dr Michael Coran knows that that's Jan and Dean. Right, dr Coran?
Speaker 3:
0:40
Of course yeah, A little old lady from Pasadena imitating the Beach Boys.
Speaker 2:
0:44
What an amazing imitation, right Gosh. No shame there at all.
Speaker 3:
0:50
Oh hey, it's a old fair in love with the music industry.
Speaker 2:
0:54
Yeah apparently so. Well, dr Michael Coran is with us. He's a big friend of WSOS and we're fortunate to have him join us on Monday mornings and we get some good information about what's happening with clinical research and medical information, health information out there. And, of course, dr Coran, a medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist, and he's right here locally, although this morning he's not.
Speaker 2:
1:15
He's up in New Jersey this morning, but normally he lives here with us 904-7300166 is the number for Encore Docs, where you can learn how you can participate in leading edge medical research. And, of course, all the buzz in the media over the last 48 hours has been about the new COVID booster, dr Coran, and whether or not we should take it or not.
Speaker 3:
1:35
Yeah, it's been interesting debate, discussion and political theater.
Speaker 2:
1:43
Yep.
Speaker 3:
1:44
But let's break it down to just what the medical facts are. So the most basic concept in medicine, kevin, is the concept of risk versus benefit. Everything we do in health care, everything we do in medicine, is to evaluate that risk versus the benefit of whatever intervention we're recommending, whether it's a drug, whether it's a surgery, whether it's a procedure, imaging, whatever it may be, it comes down to that decision and evaluation. So something as simple as taking an aspirin has a risk and also the benefit. So I believe that the best way to understand and make sense of all this controversy is just think of it in those terms. So what do we know?
Speaker 3:
2:23
We know that the COVID vaccines were certainly very, very important breakthrough in medicine and that they saved many, many lives.
Speaker 3:
2:32
We know that the disease COVID has evolved, that at first it was an absolutely devastating disease, particularly for older and vulnerable people, and now the variants we're looking at fortunately are not quite as lethal in most people, but in some people it's still lethal. So the question then is who is at high risk and who is at low risk? The other part of the puzzle, of course, is what is the risk of the intervention, and fortunately, the risk of taking a booster is very, very, very low, not zero, of course it's not zero. So if you've had previous problems with vaccines or if you had a reaction to previous COVID vaccines, you should take pause before taking a booster. But for the vast majority of us, people have done just fine taking the booster without a serious problem and, interestingly, older people tend to have pure side effects for an interesting reason, which is that our immune responses aren't quite as robust, so we're unlikely to have a reaction due to an overactive immune system.
Speaker 3:
3:34
So, having said that, how does the average person decide? Well, you decide based on what your personal risk is and also what your exposure risk is. So your personal risk is based on your medical background and what illnesses you may have or what your vulnerabilities are. So if you're older, by definition for COVID you're at higher risk. So people over age 60, over 65, should, in general, get the booster because their risk of getting sick is very, very high. People who are younger say less than 40, tend to have less severe illnesses. So you have to look at your individual circumstances with your physician and your loved ones, of course, people who are younger, who have preexisting conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, etc. They need to consider those factors when they're deciding what their personal risk is.
Speaker 3:
4:28
And then you have your exposure risk. Your exposure risk is what you do for living, the people you're hanging out with, that you interact with, etc. So for somebody like myself, in the healthcare industry, I'm constantly dealing with sick people, so my exposure risk is quite high and because of that I will take vaccines to protect myself and my family. Right, not everybody has that exposure. So if you work at a office or you work virtually, well, your exposure risk is lower. But part of your exposure risk is also do you interact with vulnerable people?
Speaker 3:
5:01
So, for example, if you have a teenager who may not be at high personal risk, but that teenager lives with that 80-year-old grandparent, well, that changes the whole dynamic and not you're doing things not only for consideration of the teenager but also for consideration of the grandparent, so that person is not exposed to the virus. So these are all things that should be in your consideration when you decide whether to get the boosters or not. And unfortunately, when the government gets involved, there's this false premise that the government can decide what our risks are and the government really can't. So, even though the CDC recommended it broadly and the state of Florida specifically did, not recommend it.
Speaker 3:
5:45
Both of these recommendations don't consider everybody as individual circumstances. And the government cannot possibly make a good recommendation without understanding the individual circumstances.
Speaker 2:
5:56
Hey, if you just go ahead. If you're just tuning in, that's the voice of Dr Michael Corn once again, and he is with Encore Docks and we're talking about the new COVID booster that just became available, really within the last couple of days. Dr Corn, if I guess it would make a lot of sense too for people to maybe give a quick call to their physician's office and maybe try to get their sense of whether they should take it or not.
Speaker 3:
6:18
Absolutely. If there's any questions, then you should. Now there's certain categories of people that can be pretty straightforward. So you know, if you're a 75-year-old person and you've had a heart attack before, you have diabetes, it's pretty straightforward that if you haven't had a booster within the year, go ahead and get it. There's very little downside unless you've had some reactions to these things in the past, and so when I see patients who have heard about the anti-vaccine information that's out there and they don't protect themselves in simple ways.
Speaker 3:
6:48
That's unfortunate. So sometimes the messaging has an unintended consequence. Other people you know if you're a young family and you haven't had major illnesses in the family, thank God, and then maybe you don't have to worry about it as much. But people in the middle you should talk to your physicians.
Speaker 2:
7:09
Well, very good advice and good information too. And, of course, speaking of good information, we can get great health information, especially about medical research that's been ongoing, by checking out this website, where they just focus on the facts, the results of medical research MedEvidencecom. That's MedEvidencecom. That's a website that Dr Corn and his team are very involved with and they work very aggressively to get you the best and honest information. So, and if you're interested in participating in clinical research, you can go to OnCoreDoxcom. That's OnCoreDoxcom. Any particular studies you want to highlight this morning?
Speaker 3:
7:44
Well, getting back to the point about risk versus benefit, of course we're doing lots of different vaccine studies. We're doing studies that are looking at combining COVID with the flu. We're looking at two seasonal viruses and it makes sense that these vaccines should be eventually put into the same treatment, and we are doing those studies now. We're working on Lyme disease vaccines so people, especially people like the outdoors, may be interested in protecting themselves against Lyme disease, and we also have non-vaccine ways of protecting people against COVID. So we have a study that's looking at using antibodies to protect high-risk people, for example, people on dialysis or people with cancer or people on medicines that suppress their immune systems. They benefit from a study that we're doing that's using antibodies to protect you from COVID during the cold and flu season. So there's a myriad of things that we're doing at a given time, and give us a call and we'll check it out.
Speaker 3:
8:37
Also point out that in our clinical trial environment we're always trying to minimize the risk and maximize the benefit for patients. We operate under an ethical principle called beneficence, which is that in every project that we're doing, our responsibility is to make sure that that trade-off is as favorable as possible for our patients.
Speaker 2:
8:58
Absolutely Well. Once again, if you have any questions about participating in those trials that Dr Coran just mentioned, you can call locally. There are offices right here in St John's County at Flagler, well near Flagler Hospital, the new UF Flagler.
Speaker 2:
9:10
Hospital by the way, 904-730-0166 is the telephone number. Punch that into your cell phone and, just you know, ask some questions. There's no high-pressure sales, just you know information about how you can participate in leading-edge medical research here locally and maybe even get compensated for it 904-730-0166. So, dr Coran, what exit are you at on the turnpike?
Speaker 3:
9:35
I am about to go from the Gordon State Parkway to the turnpike.
Speaker 2:
9:39
Oh, the big transition.
Speaker 3:
9:41
Yes, I am fortunately going to be in Newark Airport in about 30 minutes and then heading back to back to home, so looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:
9:49
Well, safe travels, dr Coran, and we'll speak with you again next Monday. Okay.
Speaker 3:
9:53
You bet.
Speaker 1:
9:54
Thank you. Thanks for joining the MedEvidence Podcast. To learn more, head over to medevidencecom or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
