Celebrate St Patrick's Day in Phoenix!

The 42nd Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Phoenix, AZ is scheduled for March 15th, 2025 at 10am. The Parade takes place in Downtown Phoenix.

The route goes down 3rd street from Oak St. to Margaret T Hance Park.

Telehealth Visits

Dr. Lakin is using ZOOM,

FACETIME and WHATSAPP to connect with you

for a 'Telehealth' visit if needed.

You can connect using your iPad, iPhone, Android phone, a laptop, or a PC with a camera.

Every year Phoenix Magazine publishes a guide featuring the Valley’s best physicians. The doctors are selected through a peer-review survey. The theory is that medical professionals are the best qualified to judge medical professionals. The survey asks the doctors to nominate those doctors who, in their judgement, are the best in their fields.

Once again, Dr. Lakin has been chosen as a TOP DOC among his peers. Now standing at 23 years!

(2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2001)

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lakin!

March 16, 2025

FLU SEASON REMAINS HIGH NATIONALLY BUT IT IS MODERATE IN ARIZONA AND IN DECLINE. 

IT WILL BE A HEAVY PRESENCE FOR 2-3 MORE WEEKS AND THEN WILL BE BACK TO BASELINE IN THE VALLEY.   IF YOU HAVE HIGH FEVER, SEVERE ACHES AND PAINS, AND COUGH… IT IS MOST LIKELY FLU… BUT TEST FOR COVID.  WE HAVE FLU MEDICATION SO BE IN TOUCH. 

COVID IS LESS THEN ½ OF WHAT IT WAS LAST YEAR. THIS IS GOOD NEWS. BUT IT IS STILL AROUND.

RSV REMAINS… LOW… AND DECLINING……LESS THEN ½ OF LAST YEARS NUMBERS.

*CURRENT COVID VACCINE IS IN PHARMACIES. IT IS STILL A SOLID MATCH FOR THE CURRENT COVID VIRUS

MEASLES CONCERNS/OUTBREAK:

MEASLES OUTBREAKS ARE IN THE NEWS. A CHILDHOOD VIRUS THAT IS THE MOST HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS VIRUS KNOWN TO MAN, IT HAS BEEN ALL BUT ERADICATED IN THE USA, WITH A FOOTHOLD DEVELOPING DUE TO ANTI-VACCINE CONCERNS.

ADULTS ARE GENERALLY NOT AT RISK, BUT HERE IS INFORMATION FOR YOU:

IF YOU WERE BORN BEFORE 1957 YOU HAVE NO CONCERNS.  IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN YOU HAD MEASLES AND YOU REMAIN IMMUNE.

IF YOU WERE BORN IN 1968 OR LATER YOU CERTAINLY HAD AN EFFECTIVE MEASLES VACCINE AND ARE PROTECTED.

IF YOU WERE BORN IN 1958-1967, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT YOUR MEASLES VACCINE HAS WORN OFF.  ALTHOUGH LIKELY THAT YOU HAVE IMMUNITY, YOU COULD CONSIDER A BLOOD TEST TO CHECK FOR IMMUNITY AND IF NEGATIVE, GET AND MMR BOOSTER SHOT.  

IN GENERAL, I DO NOT RECOMMEND TESTING FOR PEOPLE IN THIS AGE GROUP UNLESS THEY ARE IMMUNE COMPROMISED, THEN IT IS WORTHWHILE.  THE ONLY OTHER REASON IS IF YOU REMAIN WORRIED SO THAT YOU HAVE PEACE OF MIND ON THIS TOPIC.  THE RISKS OF MEASLES BROADLY REMAIN VERY VERY LOW.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2025 IMMUNIZATIONS:

DATA CONTINUES TO SUPPORT BENEFIT FROM COVID VACCINATION. BENEFITS OF THE SHOT INCREASE WITH AGE AND WITH CONDITIONS THAT PREDISPOSE TO COMPLICATIONS (EMPHYSEMA/COPD, HEART FAILURE, DIABETES, IMMUNE SUPPRESSION)

CURRENT COVID STATUS:

THE CURRENT COVID STRAINS ARE VERY CONTAGIOUS AND PRESENT THROUGHOUT ARIZONA… WE ARE SEEING SEVERAL EACH WEEK, MOST DUE TO TRAVEL OR LARGE EVENT ATTENDANCE.

IF YOU GET SICK AFTER TRAVEL OR ATTENDING A BIG GATHERING… DO A COVID TEST. ALL STANDARD COVID TESTS WORK TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT STRAINS.

ALL DOING WELL.  BE PROACTIVE TO PREVENT NEED FOR HOSPITALIZATION. PROTECTION IS UP TO YOU AND NOW IS A PERSONAL DECISION. DO WHAT MAKES YOU COMFORTABLE.

DATA 100% SHOWS THAT GOOD MASKS MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THEY ARE NOT PERFECT, BUT THEY DO REDUCE RISK OF EXPOSURE AND INFECTION.

• I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH… IF YOU DON’T WANT COVID FROM TRAVEL… WEAR A MASK IN THE AIRPORT CROWDS AND ON THE AIRPLANE (UNTIL 10,000 FEET) … THIS IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL AS IT WAS WHEN COVID WAS MORE SEVERE… BUT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID INFECTIONS IN GENERAL DURING TRAVEL... IT’S A RECOMMENDATION.

• EVEN SELECTIVE MASK USE WORKS WELL… SUCH AS ONLY IN CROWDED SPACES IN THE AIRPORT, AND DURING TRAVEL ‘TO’ YOUR DESTINATION, SO THAT YOU ARE NOT ILL DURING YOU VACATION/TRAVEL TIME.  LESS IMPORTANT WHEN YOU RETURN FROM VACATION.

• GET BOOSTED IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO…PARTICULARLY OVER AGE 65 WITH HEALTH ISSUES OR OVER 75 WITHOUT HEALTH ISSUES.  EVERY 6 MONTHS IS THE RECOMMENDATION FOR THIS GROUP. 

I RECOMMEND THE COVID BOOSTER GENERALLY FOR THOSE OVER 65. BUT…

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND A BOOSTER FOR THOSE 80 & OLDER.

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE BOOSTER FOR THOSE OVER 65 WITH HEART FAILURE, SIGNIFICANT LUNG CONDITIONS, AND DIABETES.

CONSIDER BOOSTING WITH THE NEW COVID VACCINE TO REDUCE RISK OF COVID AND TO REDUCE COVID SYMPTOM SEVERITY. 

TOP PODCAST DONE WEEKLY

BY DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM

(UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA)  

He is a world-renowned epidemiologist who was credited with first elucidating TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME in the 1980’s.

He provides comprehensive and understandable/actionable ideas related to COVID.

Dr. Osterholm Update: COVID-19 Podcast

March 6, 2025



(Same as last week's... New podcast next week!)

'Mixed Messages: Navigating the Unfolding Confusion'

In "Mixed Messages: Navigating the Unfolding Confusion" Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the expected impact of recent cuts to USAID programs, the measles outbreak in Texas, and the latest respiratory virus trends. Dr. Osterholm answers an ID query on measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine boosters, and shares the latest "This Week in Public Health History" segment.

According to Dr. Osterholm……

•  GET YOUR LATEST AVAILABLE BOOSTER IF YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID OR IT’S BEEN LONGER THAN 4 MONTHS SINCE YOU HAD COVID YOURSELF

•  A GOOD MASK, N95 OF KN95, DOES HELP REDUCE TRANSMISSION…. USE IT AT HIGH-RISK LOCATIONS

• GOOD VENTILATION IN ROOMS/HOME/BUSINESSES IS A GREAT WAY TO PREVENT TRANSMISSION

• VACCINE, VACCINE, VACCINE…THIS IS OUR PROTECTION. ALL VACCINES ARE EFFECTIVE AND WITH TIME WE ARE SEEING THAT

• BOOST, BOOST, BOOST…THIS WILL BE NECESSARY TO PREVENT RECURRING SURGE AND TO RAISE ANTIBODY LEVELS IN THOSE ALREADY SET WITH THE PRIMARY COVID VACCINE SERIES.

• ANTIGEN TESTING IS USEFUL, BUT OF LIMITED VALUE. DON’T DEPEND ON IT…BUT USE IT.

Know that unvaccinated remain a source of potential infection. Avoiding unvaccinated persons will reduce your risk of COVID.

Three Months into 2025, US Measles

Cases Surpass Total for 2024

Three months into 2025, the United States has surpassed the total number of measles cases in the country for all of last year.

The high number of cases is driven by a multistate outbreak that has reached nearly 300 cases. As of Friday, Texas has reported 259 cases this year, New Mexico has tallied 35 cases and Oklahoma reported two. Experts say this is probably a severe undercount.

In 2024, there were 285 total measles cases reported in the US, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A CNN tally suggests that there have been at least 320 cases so far in 2025, including 296 associated with the multistate outbreak.

“As I’m seeing this outbreak unfold, it brings me back to the year 2000 when the United States declared that measles was eradicated from our country,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“The split screen of what’s happening now and the fact that it was deemed to be eradicated 25 years ago, I think highlights the deterioration of proven preventative measures,” he said. “And the current outbreak might be larger than we currently realize.”

In the years since measles was declared eliminated in the US, there have been an average of about 179 cases reported each year. There have been an average of about eight outbreaks per year – ranging from one to 25 annually – and most years at least 60% of all reported cases have been tied to outbreaks. But the worst outbreaks each year typically stay under 50 cases.

Cases in the ongoing measles outbreak have risen to 258 across Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and state health departments are urging more people to get the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that “people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves. And what we need to do is give them the best information and encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease.”

But Kennedy also downplayed the safety of the vaccine and wrongly told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that measles outbreaks could be driven in part by people who have waning immunity from the vaccine.

“When you and I were kids, everybody got measles, and measles gave you … lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people, it wanes,” Kennedy told Hannity.

“Some years, we have hundreds of these outbreaks. … And, you know, part of that is that there are people who don’t vaccinate, but also the vaccine itself wanes. The vaccine wanes 4.5% per year,” he said.

But Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, says that if that were the case, measles wouldn’t have been declared eliminated in the US in 2000.

There’s some dispute among experts about how much protection may wane, if at all. However, they all agree that in most cases, the vaccine confers lifelong immunity against the virus.

The current outbreak “is absolutely being driven and started by unvaccinated individuals,” said Dr. Michael Mina, chief scientific officer of the telehealth company eMed and an expert in the epidemiology, immunology and spread of infectious disease.

Even those who may have waning immunity will not transmit large amounts of virus, he said.

Levels of antibodies created by the vaccine might decrease over time, but with a virus like measles, its longer incubation period gives the body’s immune memory cells more time to help fight the infection. This enables long-lasting immunity from vaccination, Offit explained.

After you received your COVID or any other vaccination outside our office, please let us know!

We would like to document this information into your chart.



What we need:

1. Your name
2. Name & date of vaccination received
3. Brand name
4. Lot number if available
5. Which dose you have received

You Can’t Get Free At-Home Covid Tests Anymore — Here’s Where to Shop the Best Options

By Zoe Malin

Gone are the days of visiting a doctor’s office to determine whether you have Covid. Instead, you can buy over-the-counter test kits, which diagnose infection from the comfort of your home, making them convenient. However, at-home Covid tests are generally less sensitive than tests performed by medical professionals, so it’s important to understand their benefits and limitations, says Omai Garner, PhD, chief of clinical microbiology for the UCLA Health System.

I spoke to experts about how to shop for at-home Covid tests, including how they work, who should use them and how accurate they are. I also rounded up FDA-authorized test kits you can purchase right now.

It's been five years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. But many patients with long COVID have yet to find meaningful recovery.

Around 6% of adults in the U.S. — or roughly 18 million — are estimated to be living with the damaging aftermath of catching the virus, according to research and a long-running survey of U.S households, although numbers are still difficult to pin down because the definitions vary.

And it's not a thing of the past — new patients are still showing up in doctor's offices.

"I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions," says Hannah Davis, co-founder of the advocacy group, Patient-Led Research Collaborative,

"We've seen so much long COVID in just the last year or two."

Research on long COVID has coalesced around a handful of explanations for what could underpin the illness, but that hasn't yet translated into major breakthroughs for patients who need care.

There are still no approved treatments for the condition, which can span many organ systems and symptoms depending on the patient, and can include shortness of breath, brain fog, fatigue and post-exertional malaise, among other things.

We Are Here to Take Care of Your Healthcare Needs.

We Are Here to Serve!

Our office is using techniques to reduce exposure to a minimum during your visit. These include: 

• Multiple Super-HEPA filters to filter out potential virus and

particles in the office.

• High Level UV light air cleansing in the office to eliminate

bacteria and viruses in the air.

OUR OFFICE SCHEDULE  

DOORS OPEN     

7AM - 4PM Monday through Thursday

7AM - 11AM Friday

IN OFFICE

APPOINTMENTS: MONDAY – THURSDAY

7AM – 11:15AM & 1PM – 3:30PM

APPOINTMENTS: FRIDAY

7AM – 10:30 AM

DR. LAKIN WILL CONTINUE ‘TELEHEALTH’ VISITS WITH FaceTime, WhatsApp or ZOOM WHEN NEEDED.

Dr. Lakin's Info For COVID-19 Kit &

Recommended Treatments

SUMMARY OF A COVID KIT & CHECK LIST:

This is what you should have at home to prepare for possible COVID, to monitor yourself if you were to get infected:

DIGITAL ORAL THERMOMETER: MANY BRANDS ARE FINE…HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

PULSE OXIMETER:  TO CHECK OXYGEN LEVELS. MANY BRANDS ARE FINE...HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

OTHER ITEMS FROM THE HOME MEDICAL KIT:

• TYLENOL, ADVIL, OR ALEVE
• Sudafed 30mg tablets
• Chlorpheniramine 4mg tablets
• Robitussin DM syrup
• Imodium AD

Prior exposures to specific types of seasonal influenza viruses promote cross-reactive immunity against the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Older adults who were exposed to seasonal flu viruses that circulated prior to 1968 were found to be more likely to have antibodies that bind to the H5N1 avian flu virus.

The findings, published in Nature Medicine suggest that younger adults and children would benefit more from H5N1 vaccines, even those not tailored specifically to the current strain circulating in birds and cattle.

"We know that early childhood influenza exposures can elicit immune responses that last a lifetime," said senior author Scott Hensley, Ph.D., a professor of Microbiology.

"We found that antibody responses that were primed by H1N1 and H3N2 viruses decades ago can cross-react to H5N1 avian viruses circulating today. Most of these cross-reactive antibodies cannot prevent infections, but they will likely limit disease if we have an H5N1 pandemic."

. . .Stay Healthy