‘I Really Hoped That I Had Malaria’: What We Heard This Week

“I really hoped that I had malaria.” — Kent Brantly, MD, who served as medical director of an Ebola treatment unit in Liberia, recalling the moment he realized he had contracted Ebola.

“We’re weeks and weeks and weeks behind, which is unheard of pre-Trump administration.” — Becky Smullin Dawson, PhD, MPH, of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, addressing delayed federal investigations into nationwide cyclosporiasis clusters.

“What worked really well in this case was that the patient kept coming back.” — Lulu Wang, MD, of MedStar Health in Washington, D.C., reflecting on a complex diagnosis made on a patient’s third healthcare visit for persistent hiccups.

“Suicidal behavior does not occur in a social vacuum.” — Kimberly Mitchell, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, on data suggesting peer contagion in adolescent and young adult suicide attempts.

“This study adds another piece to a large and complex puzzle.” — Haleigh Cavalier, PhD, MPH, of NYU Langone Health in New York City, on research finding no link between low-level prenatal pesticide exposure and autism-related traits in children.

“We really need to have compassion.” — Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA, of the UMass Chan Medical School in Shrewsbury, on overcoming stigma when treating postpartum psychosis.

“The dollars would have to come out of their own pocket or their own non-research funds to pay to publish their work.” — Cary Gross, MD, of Yale, and an associate editor of JAMA Internal Medicine, on potential costs for researchers in order to comply with the NIH’s new rule requiring manuscripts to be publicly available as soon as they are published.