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Hi everyone, this is John Mandrola from the Heart.org Medscape Cardiology and this is this week in

Cardiology for January 8th 2021.

This week America, COVID, trial translation, valve guidelines, and social media.

For months on end, the pandemic has rightly distracted us from almost everything medical and certainly cardiology.

Before Wednesday, it would have been hard to believe that anything else could have been bigger news than the third wave of this

pandemic. But there I was on Wednesday afternoon, in between cases and patient visits staring

at my phone in disbelief, that the crucible of our republic has been invaded

by a mob of nut jobs. Five people have died from this awfulness. I've been to Washington and I visited these buildings. While you know

that politicians are just flawed people, like all of us, you can feel the history in these places.

It feels somewhat like being in an old church in Italy. It feels

solemn. So sad, sad is how I feel. Sad for this nation. What I hope for though is that perhaps this is a

spark perhaps leaders can come together, reach out and get back to the business of

trying to help this nation heal.

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