Physicians, nurses, residents, and students writing on KevinMD during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, most of it in real time between March 2020 and 2022: the first weeks and the shortages, the surge, redeployment, schools and masks, the vaccine's arrival and the people who refused it, and what the years did to the people who worked through them. This archive is a primary record of what clinicians wrote as it happened, and more of it was written anonymously than any other subject on the site. For that record organized as a timeline, with the disagreements recorded as physicians made them, see COVID-19: what physicians wrote as it happened. For what physicians said about burnout in those years and since, see Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words.
Even as COVID-19 is found in apes, big cats, minks, domestic cats, other small mammals, and now in U.S. deer, some don’t want to let go of the insultingly simplistic “lab leak” theory. Do they really think the 1918 influenza and AIDS pandemics (or Ebola, MERS, and SARS ) needed lab mendacity to exist? We won’t even talk about the prehistorical plagues!
Giving COVID-19 political not animal origins ignores its disturbing …
The nurse called: “The patient wants to leave AMA.”
These calls come, fortunately not often. Typically the patient is not terribly ill, but they really miss their cigarettes or alcohol. Spending another day or two in the hospital would be wise, but leaving against medical advice is not actually jeopardizing their life.
This was different. This patient was very ill, but competent to make his own …
“Trust and confidence in any product — and here the vaccine is the product — starts with confidence in the process and safety.”
-Payam N., Vaccine Outreach Supervisor
While training over 1,800 vaccine outreach workers enrolled in the California Virtual Training Academy’s Vaccine Communications Training, the UCSF Center for Excellence in Primary Care developed a practical guide for engaging people who are skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccine in meaningful …
Our memories are tricky. Whether we inflate experiences in recollection or allow their wonder to slip back among the ordinary depends on our perspectives at the time between present and past. The trouble is that we are no good at knowing in which direction we’ve erred.
We counteract this flaw with record-keeping, and these words are an entry into our shared ledger. They are attestations of what is owed to the …
Vaccinations have long been a routine part of practice in late summer and early fall for pediatricians and family physicians.
Back to school brings enrollment vaccination requirements and sports physicals, as well as the opportunity to bring young patients up to date on recommended vaccinations. For years, childhood vaccinations have been largely unremarkable and uncontroversial—but not this year.
Questions over whether children should be vaccinated against COVID-19, the danger posed by the …
The Quebec government recently announced plans for a vaccine passport system, which, in the event of a fourth wave of COVID-19, will bar people who are not fully vaccinated from entering indoor settings such as bars, restaurants, gyms, and entertainment events. Quebec is an outlier here: Apart from Manitoba — which issues “immunization cards” to those fully vaccinated, but has not established any rules for their use — all other …
As we sat at home watching our physician colleagues on the news draped with masks and PPE calmly explaining their dire situations last year, one cannot help but wonder what kind of environment and community cultivated these heroes. Were their commonalities in how we physicians were all raised that led us on the same path? During medical school, I was intrigued by how such a diverse group of people could …
The world is ill-prepared to respond to threatening public health emergencies. What is most disturbing is how our global leaders continue to lack health equity’s moral and scientific premises. At the beginning of 2020, the novel coronavirus rampaged across the globe, with many officials referring to it as the great equalizer. However, referring to the virus as the great equalizer ignored the history that diseases have always made a preferential …
Maybe we can take a deep breath — and breathe out slowly. Perhaps we can check our pulse. Go on that vacation far away or visit a beach and watch the crashing waves. Listen to the seagulls, the breeze, the blue skies. And turn our cell phones off.
But as an ICU nurse who loved this speciality, having COVID patients in the ICU was a war zone.
Another COVID outbreak appears to be transpiring. As America celebrated significant milestones with vaccination efforts, many people were still spurred by misinformation, lack of evidence, and education. The COVID-19 vaccine naysayers are in all walks of society, from the uneducated to health care professionals. I think it’s fair to say that our civil liberties and part of our belief in freedom of choice will be the downfall of this nation. …
Due to emerging science about transmission in vaccinated people, the CDC now recommends all teachers and students wear masks in school, and that people living in COVID-19 hotspots, or areas of the country with large outbreaks, wear masks indoors, CDC officials said on Tuesday.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, attributed this updated guidance to new science surrounding the Delta variant, showing that “some vaccinated people infected with the Delta …
Medical groups’ calls for COVID-19 vaccination mandates for health care workers reached a fever pitch on Monday, with the American Medical Association (AMA), American Nurses Association, and 55 other organizations joining the chorus supporting mandatory vaccination.
“It is critical that all people in the health care workforce get vaccinated against COVID-19 for the safety of our patients and our colleagues,” said Susan R. Bailey, MD, immediate past president of the AMA, …
A year ago, I started writing. I wrote to process what I had seen and done and to prepare for what I knew was to come. It was inevitable. Humans would return to their normal activities, and despite mine and so many others’ advice, would do so without utilizing mitigating behaviors or respect for others. We knew it was coming, and it did. The summer surge, followed by the darkest …
A public health expert and a web developer have created a new digital communication tool to get more COVID-19 shots into arms — a vaccine emoji.
Social media users have been using the syringe, microbe, or mask emoji in their posts to talk about the pandemic. The new vaccine emoji, however, will display a flexing bicep patched up with a Band-Aid, representing an …
Our country is seventeen months into a pandemic that we have an effective vaccine for, and yet, COVID-19 cases are still rising at an alarming rate. Currently, this dramatic acceleration in cases is evident in several states. Furthermore, these areas with high numbers of COVID-19 case rates are associated with low vaccination rates.
These unfortunate statistics lead one to reflect on the multitude of reasons that Americans are abstaining from vaccination. …
When watching the news or reading articles about COVID-19, the physicians who contribute are often in internal medicine, epidemiology, emergency medicine, etc. You do not typically see psychiatrists contributing to discussions on the virus itself but more about the mental health ramifications of COVID-19.
Psychiatrists are also not often considered integral in the role of vaccine educators. But I argue that they, in fact, play a vital role in educating a …
A controversial study suggesting that masks may harm children by exposing them to high carbon dioxide levels was retracted on Friday.
The research letter released in JAMA Pediatrics on June 30 had reported unacceptably high levels of carbon dioxide by German standards in air inside masks worn by children in a laboratory environment.
In the retraction notice, the journal editors cited “numerous scientific issues,” that also included questions over the applicability …
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out last year, Helen (not her real name) took all the right steps to protect herself. The 74-year-old self-isolated, wore a face mask, and practiced social distancing.
Helen stayed safe from the virus during this time, but she put her health at risk in another way: for nearly two years, she didn’t see her primary care physician. Nor did she go to the eye doctor to …
COVID-19 has drastically impacted every facet of life. Health care has been the center of this pandemic, and those working in health care have seen first-hand the crisis and the advancements made. As we reflect on the impact this pandemic has, we have seen both the worst and best of our health care system.
1. The scientific and medical community is interconnected and, together, can achieve amazing things. If we reflect …
At 12:11 p.m., the overhead speaker announced: “Code Blue, Three West.” She repeated, “Code Blue, Three West.”
Shit. I started my stopwatch and saved the patient note I was writing in the back office of Three West, the intensive care unit of a community hospital in Tampa Bay. Already wearing a sealed N95 mask, …
