The Danger of Stroking a Tiger – Learning From Churchill and FDR

Mike Magee On the evening of December 29, 1940, with election to his 3rd term as President secured, FDR delivered these words as part of his sixteenth “Fireside Chat”: “There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness…No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.” Millions of Americans, and millions of Britains were […]

Health Insecurity and the Survival of American Democracy

Mike Magee Social Epidemiology, is a branch of epidemiology that concentrates on the impact of the various social determinants of health on the citizens of a nation. This field of study lives at the intersection of health care services, political science , the law, and history. What makes this field of study so timely and […]

The Night Biden and Bernie Channeled FDR and MLK.

Mike Magee In my research up to last week’s speech on “The Right to Health Care and the U.S. Constitution” (transcript here), I came across this Emily Dickinson poem that could easily have been a forward looking tribute to two American Presidents – one from the 20th, the other the 21st century. Dickinson’s poem “A WORD […]

Mass Vaccination – We’ve Been There Before.

Mike Magee Children of this era, decades from now, will recall a pandemic and their experiences with vaccines, in the same manner as citizens of my age recall the polio vaccine campaigns in the 1950’s. While my generation was less informed on the science than our counterparts today, we had three advantages: National administrative leadership […]

Thanks and Remembrance: The Polio Volunteers.

With my sister, Pat – “Polio Volunteer.” Mike Magee With vaccines and new leadership now on the horizon, it’s useful to acknowledge that this is not our first pandemic. Of course there was the 1918 flu, but before that – and for many years after – there was polio. Two years into his first term […]

Doctor Senators Barrasso and Price – They Are No Royal Copeland.

Sen. Royal Copeland M.D. (D, NY) Mike Magee This week the Republican leadership once again released an unapologetically regressive plan for America’s healthcare that would drive a further wedge between rich and poor and sow despair deep into America’s soul. Sadly, two of the primary leaders of the effort are fellow physicians, Sen. John Barrasso […]

Connection? Obamacare Job Impact & FDR “Court Packing” Case of 1937.

Mike Magee What do the latest CBO report on potential job losses associated with Obamacare have in common with the FDR “Court Packing” plan of 1937? I’m about to answer that question. First a word on the CBO report.(1) It was released yesterday. The report suggests that the law will lead to a decrease of […]