I am an internist in private practice in a community west of Milwaukee, and my commitment as a physician is to keep my patients and community safe and healthy. Throughout the pandemic, I have worked hard to learn everything I can about COVID-19, have helped my patients stay healthy, greatly reduced rates of COVID spread through preventive education, and cared for my patients who have become COVID positive, keeping them …
I feel more alone than ever before
As communities of color continue to be disproportionately decimated by COVID-19 and the brutal impact of racism and other longstanding systemic inequalities, academic medicine finds itself at a critical inflection point in defining its role in addressing social injustices not only for its patients but also for its academic workforce. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, many medical schools and teaching hospitals released statements condemning racial injustice and vowed …
The COVID-19 vaccine has failed.
I don’t mean that the vaccine itself doesn’t work—far from it. I mean the ineffective way such an important lifesaving, pandemic-ending vaccine is being rolled out. The slovenly effort is putting the lives of millions of Americans at risk. At the vaccine’s current injection rates, or even if they got it to 1 million a day, it’ll still take a year before all Americans are fully …
The failure of COVID-19 vaccine distribution confirms government incompetence
“The flu vaccine can strengthen your immune system, prevent the disease spread among those closest to you, protect your children, and reduce the health care system’s burden. Protecting ourselves and others as we traverse a pandemic is paramount in saving lives and keeping our communities safe and healthy. Along with our ongoing …
Why flu vaccines are more important than ever in this pandemic [PODCAST]
I am angry and frustrated, and these feelings mixed with exasperation have led me to write this. In the U.S., we failed to contain the virus like New Zealand; we failed to mitigate it like Singapore; we failed to test for it like South Korea. We maybe did pretty well with treatment, but with the other failures, that still means so much unnecessary suffering and loss. Now we are failing …
The vaccines brought a feeling of hope, but the distribution reality is quickly shattering that
I walk this dark and winding path between wellness and illness, moving between darkness and light on this journey of life. As I move between well-being and an uneasy state of uncertainty, a roller-coaster of emotions moves over me. I am brought to my knees with doubt, restlessness, discontent, anger, and fear. At times, I feel heavy with the weight of the world upon my shoulders; other moments, I feel …
My healer, please guide me on this journey
“We have to start understanding these as the real costs of climate change. We are paying these costs now. In my state of Oregon, people are going to start getting sick and dying in the next few days of the wildfire smoke choking the air. When they show up to the hospital …
Climate change, cardiac arrest, and the price of inaction [PODCAST]
Given the COVID-19 pandemic’s ongoing course, it is important to prioritize offering our still limited vaccine supply to individuals with the highest risk of exposure to, and negative outcomes from infection with the virus. While each state is allocating their initial vaccines somewhat differently, for the most part, staff working in hospitals and nursing homes have been given priority. Hopefully, with few exceptions, the initial doses have gone to those …
Correctional facilities are not prioritized for COVID vaccines
If 2020 was the year of the coronavirus pandemic, 2021 has got to be the year of vaccinations. The miracle of modern science, generous funding, and expedited research have led to us having at least three available vaccines to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Pfizer/ BioNtech, Moderna, and most recently, AstraZeneca have produced vaccines that are up to 94 to 95 percent effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 virus infections or reducing …
#ThisIsOurShot to end the pandemic
It seemed like an innocuous tweet. It was just a doctor, somewhere on Twitter, declaring that it was important to learn to quickly ascertain if patients were “sick or not sick.” It was sentence; perhaps two. It spoke volumes.
He was not suggesting that doctors needed to learn to quickly assess severity; to triage for treatment priority; to know when to send a patient to a specialist. Nope. It was “sick or not …
Patients don’t need quick diagnoses. They need accurate ones.
“As we get excited about vaccine news and results, we need to evaluate our messaging and how we can get to high enough COVID-19 vaccination rates to achieve herd immunity. This requires broad and frequent education on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. It also requires active listening to address concerns …
COVID-19 vaccines: Channeling the 7 habits to get from vaccines to vaccinations [PODCAST]
COVID-19 has turned the world on its head. A major problem we have faced since the beginning is that it had already been spreading like wildfire for a few months since the end of 2019 — before most of the world realized that it was time to take action against this respiratory virus. We’ve therefore been on the back foot from the very start.
The blunt truth on why stopping COVID is impossible
Health care has been hanging by a thread for some time — in our community and across the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses inherent in an underfunded public health system, a monopolized hospital, and a fractured medical supply chain.
At the beginning of this pandemic, I wrote, “Our lives will not be saved by the government. And lives will not be saved by elected officials or large institutions. Lives will …
Is there hope for COVID with home visits?
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Back in January of 2020, the average physician burnout rate was a staggering 42 percent. However, as COVID cases continue to surge, that statistic is now undoubtedly larger. Physicians are exhausted, both physically and mentally. They’ve watched colleagues suffer extensively or even die as a result of contracting COVID from infected patients. There is not enough staffing to support the needs of the increasing patient load. Resources like basic equipment …
Physician burnout during COVID: Bringing ancient practices to modern medicine
“Growing up in Puerto Rico, ‘babas’ (bottles: biberón/botellas) and ‘bobos’ (pacifiers: chupetes/chupón) were very common among the families and children of the island. I still remember our Abuelita giving us milk in our “babas,” so my younger sister and I were sure to fall asleep better. From the time of our births, …
Bottles and pacifiers: advice from a Latinx pediatrician [PODCAST]
On a recent trauma call, we had a busy night, culminating in a horrific motorcycle trauma that came in early in the morning. The patient had devastating injuries and ended up dying. The detectives finally tracked down the patient’s family. I cleaned myself up, put on my white coat and had the family sit down in a private conference room. I entered with my trauma attending and a consulting specialist, …
Can we do better when delivering bad news in trauma?
The coronavirus pandemic posed unprecedented challenges and forced a shift towards an accelerated digital transformation. The COVID-19 public health emergency focused attention on timely dissemination and reporting of research findings, resulting in the rapid growth of preprint platforms. Preprint servers like medRxiv, bioRxiv, ChemRxiv, arXiv, and ResearchSquare received attention for sharing preliminary research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preprint servers facilitate rapid dissemination, seek the establishment of priority, and solicit feedback …
Be careful when using preprint servers for medical research reports
On those brisk walks across the hospital, I briefly look over at the instillations from local artists. Those pieces ignite a chain reaction of creative empathy and even critique from both patient and provider alike. In the briefest moment, we mentally collide into the artist’s creation, catching glimpses of their point of view. The result is our engagement in the vital need for our own creativity.
Hospital art fosters a welcoming, …
Creativity in medical school and beyond
The new American Medical Association policy recognizing racism as a public health threat and providing an anti-racist approach to equitable care will have no effectiveness unless health care organizations get their own houses in order and actively do anti-racism work in their own institutions.
Although I’m not a health care provider, as a health care communicator whose role is dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, I sit in …
Health care organizations: Clean up your house first, then you can tackle racism in patient care
As if COVID-19 weren’t bad enough during the pandemic, another public health crisis – substance use disorder (SUD) – has gone from bad to worse, while access to behavioral health services is shrinking.
As of September, more than half (52%) of community behavioral health organizations have seen an increase in demand for services, and half of those that offer SUD services saw their demand jump in the previous three months. At …
The COVID-19 vaccine won’t solve major substance use disorder treatment gaps
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