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Historic yet imperfect. That’s how I think of the World Health Organization’s recent endorsement of the long-awaited malaria vaccine, officially known as RTS,S/AS01, or simply as RTS,S. This recommendation follows careful determination by two of the WHO’s high-level advisory panels, one on immunization and another on malaria, that RTS,S provides significant protection against disease and deaths and that it is safe and cost-effective. (Fredros Okumu, 10/17)

There’s a pattern to medical reversals that can help explain this week’s seeming U-turn on that age-old advice to take an aspirin a day to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Evidence had actually been building for some time that this might do a lot of people more harm than good. This latest news shouldn’t serve as an indictment of medicine but as a warning to be skeptical of certain kinds of recommendations. That includes any medical intervention aimed at healthy people — especially treatments that aren’t backed by multiple controlled clinical trials. (Faye Flam, 10/15)

I first heard the term “hypothalamic amenorrhea” — a condition in which people stop menstruating from excessive exercise, stress, weight loss, or a combination of these factors — from my pediatrician in February. I’d missed periods for over a year and dropped 15 pounds since my last physical. But until my pediatrician’s diagnosis, I saw nothing wrong with doing two hours of high-intensity interval training on top of 3-mile runs daily. Perpetually cold and tired, I thought I was in the best shape of my life. (Juliet Fang, 10/18)

I was shocked when I heard the words no pregnant woman wants to hear: "I'm afraid there is no heartbeat," my OB/GYN said in a toneless voice, while waving the ultrasound over my ten-week pregnant belly. It was devastating to go to the doctor for a routine checkup—the one after we'd heard the heartbeat—only to discover that our planned pregnancy, the one we were so excited about, was no longer. (Amy Klein, 10/15)

Mothers, fathers, grandmas and grandpas, these are the people in our long-term care facilities. For the past 19 months, they and the millions of front-line heroes who have watched over them night and day have been at the center of this once-in-a-century public health crisis. Thanks to safe and effective vaccines, we've made considerable progress in our fight against COVID-19. While there is still a long road ahead, there is an important lesson we've learned: When long-term care has the support of federal and state governments, positive outcomes are achieved. (Mark Parkinson, 10/15)

I am a retired employee of Johns Hopkins University. Upon retirement, my wife and I joined the Johns Hopkins Advantage MD program which can be used instead of regular Medicare. This wonderful program provides everything that regular Medicare provides but with lower co-pays and other additional benefits and is available to everyone not just Hopkins employees. The cost was $20 per month for surrounding counties and was free for city residents. (10/15)

After seeing several recent reports that nursing homes throughout the nation are improperly using antipsychotic medications to “chemically restrain” residents with dementia, I feel compelled to point out that this is an area where Illinois can and should serve as a national model. Since the 1980s, the media and watchdog groups have documented nursing homes — particularly understaffed facilities — using antipsychotic medications to deal with aggressive and confrontational patients, who often suffer from dementia. (Jacqueline Y. Collins, 10/15)