From a distance, the red brick building with the white steeple and belfry looked like a 19th century private school, but, upon closer inspection, the barbed wire and barred windows revealed more of its true nature. At the time, Coxsackie Correctional Facility was a medium security prison housing predominantly late…

When I was 12 years old, I went to the library in our suburban town to learn to make bombs. Neither an athlete nor star student, I didn’t have a peer group and was often ridiculed for my ideas and personality; a local group of kids started a “Get Merahn”…

Viruses are not “alive” in any sense of the word; they are just biological machines. Their prime directive: make more viruses. That’s it. To achieve their prime directive, they invade cells in your body, take over their machinery and pump out more viruses. Different viruses infect different kinds of cells…

Once upon a time, the American healthcare system was entirely controlled by doctors. Nurses, pharmacists, and therapists of all types were their subordinates, dependent on “doctor’s orders” to authorize the exercise of their professional discipline. Hospitals were owned by, or run almost entirely in-service to, their medical staff. Over time…

One of the objections we’ve heard to the COVID-19 vaccines is related to the timeline of its development. “Most vaccines take 7–10 years” touted the experts. No wonder people were concerned about a vaccine that didn’t exist 24 months ago… But the facts speak otherwise. While we did not have…

My grandfather was an active and proud Republican; he was also a little bit racist. Not N-word racist (that would be my biological father), but it was pretty clear he saw people of color as lesser individuals, and problematic as a community. …

The death of Dr. Susan Moore. The death of Dr. Susan Moore. The Death of Doctor Susan Moore. Should make our ears ring and blood boil. Medicine failed her, not just because she was a ‘fellow physician’, but because we’ve failed in our practice; her death is an object lesson…

With the poorest urban congressional district in the United States, the Bronx has long been held as representative of the challenges, and consequences, of health inequities. …

[This is a transcript of a video I recorded after conversation with my family — about the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd] https://youtu.be/3MtoLk0HTL8]. ; Artwork by Leah Merahn Growing up I really didnt know any Black people — we lived in a a homogeneous white neighborhoood…