Essential clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community.
Guess what, everyone, I am a health care hero. I have been applauded by strangers. The Blue Angels flew over the hospital once in the pitch of COVID to salute us. I once sifted through a giant box of free chapsticks delivered to the hospital basement and grabbed one for my colleagues.
First of all, let me clarify: There is no such thing as a “hero.” It’s a social construct laypeople …
Every day I read stories on the Internet and in the newspaper of the deaths of previously healthy people who died of COVID-19. They were good people, caring parents, working people who seemed like responsible citizens. What they all shared was not being immunized against COVID-19.
Maybe they were just “vaccine-hesitant” — one of those who wasn’t convinced of the value and safety of the vaccines. Maybe they didn’t understand the …
I finished residency in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. We had a ceremony limited to just the graduating class; no family or friends could attend. Then my four other colleagues of the past three years and I embarked on our next steps as physicians.
Family medicine is my passion – I went to medical school loving the idea of caring for a whole family, from pregnancy through birth to …
Each weekday morning, without fail, I awake to two texts.
One is a symptom checker from my hospital.
The other is a symptom checker from my son’s elementary school.
They serve as a persistent reminder that the pandemic isn’t over, even if we would all like to pretend that it is. In fact, my morning routine is filled with reminders that the pandemic isn’t over: as I pack masks for my children (with …
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has made believers out of us. The statements “I believe in science” and “follow the science” express our collective assurance that scientific innovation will continue to serve humanity and sustain us through our pandemic weariness.
Historically, our scientific pursuits have catalyzed both extraordinary accomplishments and unimaginable atrocities. The line between the two is thin and the guardrails that protect against crossing this line are easily corroded. As a …
It’s been in the news that several telehealth companies are offering patients access to the anti-parasite drug ivermectin, which while rumored by some to be an effective treatment for COVID-19 is unproven. As coronavirus deaths in the United States continue to rise, tracking at over 650,000 deaths to date and hovering around 1,500 each day, we need to remain hopeful, of sound mind. Most importantly, we need caregiving and doctoring …
Earlier this summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics made recommendations that contrasted with those from the CDC, emphasizing the need to do everything possible to prevent COVID infection in children. Specifically, they recommended that even vaccinated adults who were around unvaccinated children in schools continue to mask indoors. This more conservative stance initially caused confusion, but the CDC has since aligned their guidelines more closely with pediatricians. Nevertheless, there remain …
The main reason we are seemingly so accepting of lockdowns and vaccine mandates is that we have been conditioned to view a pandemic or an epidemic as a war being waged on our society.
In wartime, we naturally expect civil liberties to be suspended. Likewise, the reasoning goes, during a pandemic we need to act in a unified way under some central command to fight this viral existential threat. Individual rights …
The reason that the United States hasn’t been able to reach higher vaccination rates is because of leadership failures. It’s really hard for leaders to lead transformational change during stable times. It’s infinitely harder to lead in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity)-dynamic world, but not impossible.
It’s the timeless leadership challenge.
How do you help the people you lead get from A to B?
I see you, COVID. I see you in the hospitals each day. I don on my surgical cap, scrubs, goggles, N95 mask, and gown. Are you there?
I see you in the scared eyes of my patients, in their tears, and in their regrets.
I see you in their cough, gasps for air, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and muscle aches.
I see you when they cannot smell or taste.
I see you when they have …
I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a balm and refuse to use it.
I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a salve and refuse to apply it.
I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a cure and refuse to accept it.
And you’d think that at some point, reasonably intelligent people would get it. You’ve been somewhere in the sanctuary all your life. You grew up in the church. …
The vitriol that characterizes discussions about vaccines, masking, and school policies has been deeply disturbing. I am a physician who is concerned about COVID. At first, I thought that everyone would want to be vaccinated. I thought that the pandemic would cause everyone to isolate and socially distance to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. Now we know it did not turn out that way. As I reflect on …
We’re getting into trouble. With headlines like “Why I am angry” and “Burnout rates at an all-time high,” physicians need to take a moment and breath. Unvaccinated people are presenting as very difficult patients that physicians dread.
In his landmark article, “Taking Care of the Hateful Patient,” Dr. James Groves highlighted four distinct patient types that doctors shrink from. Hateful patients are noted to cause negative feelings in …
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I’m usually good with words. The last year and a half of being a “front line nurse” has left me struggling to find the words. The frustration, anger, trauma, and sadness have so muddied my mind that I find it hard to sort through all of the complexities and put a name to them.
A patient told me the other day, “I know at least 60 people who have had COVID, …
You know that if you don’t get vaccinated and you don’t wear a mask, you potentially will die.
You go to super spreader events, big groups at beaches, football games, baseball games … loads of people laughing and clapping, and shoulder to shoulder.
Your refusal of the mask and COVID vaccination almost seems like a passage. Beating your chest. The survivor. It won’t happen to me.
Until you can’t breathe anymore. Delta doesn’t …
I am so tired of the freedom argument with it comes to vaccines. So tired. It didn’t really hit me until I learned more about medicine, government, and public health, just how much freedom is taken for granted.
I get it. I don’t like it when people try to tell me what to do with my body. All my life, I feel like I’ve gotten an onslaught of advice or orders …
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Prevention
Our most effective weapons are lockdowns, masks, distancing, ventilation and vaccination, but we can also protect close patient contacts pharmacologically. Subcutaneous REGEN-COV (Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody combo, casirivimab plus imdevimab) lowers the rate of illness by a whopping 81.4%. This has been known since April and blessed by the FDA in July, but has yet to catch on.
Outpatient therapy
A year and …
As a pulmonary and critical care doctor and the mother of three children too young to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, life has been harrowing. At the beginning of the summer, however, I was beginning to breathe a sigh of relief. My children had been in school last spring, and by the heroic efforts of their amazing teachers and staff, completed the school year free of sickness or quarantine from COVID-19. …
In June 2020, I wrote a short piece about the COVID vaccine that turned out to be prophetic. I said that the vaccine’s immunity might wane over time, that there might be bothersome side effects immediately, and that the public might ignore social distancing and mask-wearing once they were vaccinated. I worried that there would be political pressures to focus more on the economy than on public health.
And I wrote, …
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By now, many of you would have read my article, “Who needs scientists? It’s not like we listen to them anyway.” So, let me tell you another fiction story. But, first, I need to give you some background to this story.
Many of you would know about the theory of evolution by natural selection and how it explains the diversity we see today. It’s an excellent idea, and …
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