Life and Health

The pandemic and the post pandemic years have been very difficult for most including myself. In my opinion the work from home and social isolation it created for many of us has changed us in ways we sometimes fail to appreciate. The deaths of close friends, colleagues and classmates forced many among us to take a closer look at our lives and beliefs. The upheavals and riots on the early Covid-19…

Last month we celebrated an American hero, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As the holiday drew near I began to wonder at his legacy. I wondered what he will make of America today. My 8-year old was responsible for focusing King’s legacy on my radar. I had to rushed to the junction to pick him up from the school bus. As he got off the bus he excitedly showed me the library book he had picked up…

Memories of My Bad Ass Grandma and The US Reproductive Rights Debate

Emotional scenes in movies have often driven me to tears. This is not easy for me to admit. I still remember 12 year old me hiding behind a door and crying at my dads funeral. My mums death hit me like a ton of bricks because it came sooner than I expected. I surprised myself on that, as a physician I should have known but did not see it coming though the signs were there. I guess like all humans…

Women’s Reproductive Rights in the US and Latin America

In 2021 the Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized abortions. Now many in the US have started talking about abortions in Mexico for some Americans should Roe v. Wade be overturned. In Chile abortion access has been debated for more than a decade. The ban was lifted briefly in 2017 only to be reversed in less than a year. At this time though Chile’s new constitution may be the first to clearly…

Structural Racism in the US and Globally: Is There an Upstream Solution?

Racism in the US is as old as the nation. In looking for solutions one approach almost always stands out. We need to address the entrenched racialized narrative we have internalized and keep telling ourselves. I will admit though that I am still struggling with how to make this fact easy to digest for everyone. When I point to the stories we tell as the root of racism, many ask what this really…

Dreams That Never Came To Fruition

I was securing the arterial line I had just placed in her left radial artery when I heard her singing quietly under her breathe. It piqued my interest, so I listened closer. She was singing along with the song playing on the station we had playing in the operating room. I looked at her emaciated face half-covered by a mask and stated, “You must love that song.” “I love those old songs. They…

The Struggle For A New America III

About 4-years ago spurred on by all the social unrests in America on issues of race and identity, I wrote my first post with the above title. This will be the third essay in that series. My first post was related to the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) and what it means to African Americans. In a way it was really a question about representation. It was based on a discussion with a lady that I…

Gay Conversion Therapy: How Does This Really Work?

Have You Ever Been Different From Everyones Else? Human beings come in all colors, shapes and sizes. Like all creatures there are differences between us. Our societies have not always gloried in our differences. Sometimes we have used differences as a reason for persecution and oppression. Growing up in Ghana with ginger colored hair taught me what it is like to be different. In my community…

The Gurney Keeps Rolling

They are rolled down the hallway in a special gurney to the first stop on their journey to eternal rest. They are those who did not make it. Those who, despite our best efforts, lose the fight. Before the pandemic broke out, one would see the gurney rolling down the hallway rarely. Maybe once every other month or longer.Since the pandemic broke out, each surge has changed the frequency one sees…

POSITION STATEMENT OF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IN GHANA AND GHANAIAN HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IN GHANA AND THE DIASPORA ON “THE PROMOTION OF PROPER HUMAN SEXUAL RIGHTS AND FAMILY VALUES BILL 2021”

Following the submission of the above bill known in some circles as the Ghana Anti-LGBT+ bill, to parliament several of us health professionals, in Ghana and the diaspora, have taken the opportunity to review the bill. We have come to a consensus that the proposed bill contains several provisions that raise significant medical, scientific, and public health concerns. On that account we believe…

How Good Is One’s Immunity After a Covid-19 Infection?

Several recent studies show that not all who get a positive COVID-19 diagnosis by RT-PCR develop antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus or seroconvert. An Israeli group showed that 5% of all their COVID-19 positive patients did not seroconvert (Oved K et al., EClinicalMedicine 29 (2020) The team of Wellinghausen et al. from Germany (J Clin Virol. 2020;130) showed that 85% of confirmed COVID-19…

Covid-19 Vaccines: Do We Really Need Booster Shots?

As humans, our first line of defense against viral pathogens is the innate immune response. That includes things like the skin, cytokines, and macrophages. This response tries to hold the line till the adaptive immune response system kicks in. This process can take about 7 – 14 days. The adaptive system is made up of the humoral and cellular components. The humoral part has the B-lymphocytes that…

The Alphabet Soup of SARS-CoV-2 Variants: When Will it Cease?

It is more than 18 months since the first case of SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed in the US. Most of us hoped for a vaccine which we believed will end the pandemic. Today we have several vaccines and the pandemic still rages on with the emergence of new viral variants. Current vaccines show good efficacy, but the emergence of the delta variant, has raised concern of cracks in vaccine…

Dehumanizing The Weak and Underprivileged To Obtain or Maintain Power and Wealth

Many over the centuries have sought political power for the prestige it provides. Some have sought power to bring about the changes that they wished for in their communities or societies. There are also those who seek power for the sake of power. They do not seek power for the prestige; neither do they do so to bring about any specific change. They use power just as a child would play with a toy.…

Tyranny by the majority in one of Africa’s functional theocracies. My description of Alban Bagbin's attempt to stifle gay rights in Ghana

When we think of tyrannical theocratic regimes our minds go to the Middle East. Countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Yemen feature strongly. These nations unfortunately appear to hold the monopoly on using centuries old religious laws as tools of oppression. The truth is however very far from that. Theocratic Regimes are all over the world. Ghana is using family values to…

Global Pandemic Control: Where Did We Go Wrong? Vaccine roll out is slowing down in many high income nations yet coverage in most Sud-Saharan Africa is < 5%. Our leaders need to understand this problem is global and must be addressed globally

It is 18 months since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic. The global deaths now is 8467, more than what was reported in the worst days of April and May 2020. The geographic distribution of the deaths is however different. In the early days most of the deaths were in the US and several western European countries. Today the deaths are mostly from low and middle…

Peering Through A Smoky Glass Screen: Visions of The New Post Covid-19 Workplace

Vaccine implementation across the country is giving way to easing of social distancing restrictions. With successful vaccine deployment many are getting ready to transition back to a physical work environment. As we transition towards a physical workplace, we will need to remember the many individuals in various work situations who never had the luxury of working remotely. We need to remember…