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.

COVID-19: Looking into the future and healing

Conditions and Diseases
March 4, 2021

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a toll on its health care workers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 340,000 cases of COVID-19 among health care personnel have been reported, and it is estimated that these numbers are grossly underreported. It is estimated that more than 1,700 health care providers have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 200 being nurses. With …

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COVID-19: Looking into the future and healing

The COVID-19 vaccine from the South African frontlines

Conditions and Diseases
March 3, 2021

I have been distracting myself since the second wave. Our hospital has quietened down as far as COVID-19 cases go, and we started doing limited planned surgeries. After my last post, which detailed the overwhelming and horrific difficulties we faced during the second wave, a friend of mine suggested my next post should be about some good news.

So I thought of telling you about a touching …

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The COVID-19 vaccine from the South African frontlines

A beloved COVID ICU patient turns to comfort care

Conditions and Diseases
March 2, 2021

Everyone loved Mrs. Maria. She was everyone’s mom, grandma, teacher.

Maria grew up in poverty. Though her family was poor, she knew her parents and siblings loved her and loved each other. But the one thing she knew her passion was at was school. Every morning she couldn’t wait to go to school and learn more. And she knew one day she would be a teacher.

Throughout the years, Maria excelled in …

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A beloved COVID ICU patient turns to comfort care

Lessons from endurance racing for combatting pandemic fatigue

Physician
March 2, 2021

A recent conversation with a nurse evoked a metaphor for the COVID-19 pandemic. The floor on which she worked had just had several patients die from COVID-19 in rapid succession. One particularly sad case involved a man saying his final goodbye to his mother, both infected with COVID-19, through a video call because they couldn’t be in the same room as the mother passed away. The nurse said that she …

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Lessons from endurance racing for combatting pandemic fatigue

Why trust is the bedrock of public health policy

Physician
March 1, 2021

I was at my gym last night (yes, it’s finally open).  Billy Joel’s ballad about trust was the metronome to my squats.  Though vaccinated, I was wearing my mask.  Knowing the latest evidence about vaccines, my mask was only for the optics of those mostly maskless around me.  I overheard the couple next to me say, “OMG. Fauci says we should double-mask. What a BSer!”

Trust is fundamental to the delivery …

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Why trust is the bedrock of public health policy

Peer support during the era of COVID-19

Physician
March 1, 2021

Burnout has been an issue for those in health care long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the increased stress and anxiety we face now have caused a host of new problems.  The current environment health care professionals (HCPs) find themselves in has brought issues of physical and emotional exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and moral injury, not to mention more instances of second victim syndrome (the effect of an unanticipated, adverse medical …

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Peer support during the era of COVID-19

Responding to the COVID pandemic: a lesson in coalescence

Conditions and Diseases
February 28, 2021

On March 13, 2020, almost exactly one year ago, hospitals in New York City shared an uneasy feeling that the enemy was all around us, growing in force and stealthily approaching, but still invisible. Then, over the next three weeks, the COVID tidal wave washed over us in full fury, as desperately ill patients flooded our emergency rooms. So as not to drown in that wave, Bellevue Hospital needed to …

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Responding to the COVID pandemic: a lesson in coalescence

How a death prepared me for a pandemic

Conditions and Diseases
February 27, 2021

Since last March, every day has been filled with news of COVID-19 statistics: surges, declines, the myriad of symptoms, and the staggering number of deaths. As a 23-year-old pre-med post-bacc student, I was suddenly moving home — with my apartment’s meager supply of toilet paper and Clorox wipes — to spend the unforeseeable future with my parents.

Like many, the first few weeks were filled with uncertainty, worry, and a naïve …

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How a death prepared me for a pandemic

These 2 Canadian provinces are getting it right in the COVID-19 pandemic

Conditions and Diseases
February 26, 2021

I recently returned from Northwest Territories, where I’d been working as a physician for six months. Now, back in Nova Scotia, I’m reflecting on what it’s been like to have worked in areas of Canada with relatively few cases of COVID-19.

A large part of my work is hospital medicine. As the name implies, a hospitalist is a doctor who cares for patients admitted to the hospital. Often, we work …

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These 2 Canadian provinces are getting it right in the COVID-19 pandemic

Anti-Asian racism magnified during COVID-19

Physician
February 25, 2021

The “model minority” is a term that denotes Asians in the U.S.  East Asians, in particular, have been the target of xenophobic hate crimes and microaggressions since the outset of COVID-19. When a former presidential administration used hate and fear to garner power, it does not surprise me, that Sinophobia runs rampant during these times. The NYPD reported a 1,900 percent increase in Asian-American hate crimes in 2020. As an …

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Anti-Asian racism magnified during COVID-19

How do we address the heterogeneity in vaccine hesitancy?

Conditions and Diseases
February 25, 2021

There is light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel, but public trust in national and global public health institutions is at an all-time low. What happens if folks don’t want to travel to the light?

As the pandemic drags on, the banality of persistent distancing measures and continued calls for social distancing are falling on deaf ears. Cases and fatalities continue to set records. In an attempt to regain …

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How do we address the heterogeneity in vaccine hesitancy?

How do we treat the unvaccinated?  And how can they treat us?

Conditions and Diseases
February 24, 2021

As the challenges to get an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine get harder and not easier, and as the pressure for schools to open their doors for in-person learning, as long as teachers will get vaccinated, rises, the question remains: What about those who choose not to?

In the midst of so many individuals clamoring to get vaccinated, there remain many who will not get vaccinated. Not this week, not next …

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How do we treat the unvaccinated?  And how can they treat us?

6 ways to build trust with communities of color when distributing the COVID-19 vaccine

Conditions and Diseases
February 24, 2021

As a Latina physician on the frontlines of COVID-19, it feels like a race against time to get as many vaccines as possible to the communities of color that are more likely to be infected, hospitalized, and die from the virus. A lot of effort right now is focused on the logistics of managing vaccines that need to be manufactured, stored, allocated, …

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6 ways to build trust with communities of color when distributing the COVID-19 vaccine

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Enthusiasm over evidence? What the Israeli vaccination data actually show.

Physician
February 23, 2021

Coronavirus vaccines are crucial to taming the pandemic. Everyone should get one. Please, please, get vaccinated.

Now, that’s out of the way—I’m no anti-vaxxer. I am a huge supporter of vaccines and believe vaccination will help bring an early end to the worst global health disaster in modern history.

But there is something strange happening. Media and scientific articles on vaccine effectiveness are increasingly unhinged. Reports are drifting away from science on …

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Enthusiasm over evidence? What the Israeli vaccination data actually show.

Overcome COVID vaccine hesitancy and boost vaccine confidence: How you can help

Podcast
February 22, 2021
YouTube video

This article is sponsored by HERO-TOGETHER, a paid, prospective, observational study of 20,000 adult U.S. health care workers who received a COVID-19 vaccine within the past 60 days. 

With over 27 million cases and 470,000 deaths reported to the …

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Overcome COVID vaccine hesitancy and boost vaccine confidence: How you can help

The pandemic exposes critical gaps in Canada’s health workforce planning

Health Policy
February 20, 2021

Health workers in Canada experience endemic levels of burnout directly related to understaffing and work overload. Leaves of absence from work for mental health and stress-related issues are 1.5 times higher among health workers than the rest of the population. Increasingly, health workers are significantly reducing their hours worked to cope or leaving their jobs altogether.

That was before the pandemic. With COVID-19, we are witnessing levels of stress, overload, and burnout …

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The pandemic exposes critical gaps in Canada’s health workforce planning

Unmasking the faces of COVID: pages from a neurologist’s diary

Conditions and Diseases
February 20, 2021

“Please don’t go just yet. Promise you will come to see me again?” she asked, with a frail quiver in her voice.

“But of course, see you on my rounds tomorrow!” I replied, trying to sound cheery, as I turned to leave her negative pressure ICU room. I was doubtful if she would even remember my masked-gowned presence by the next day or even the next moment. For COVID with its …

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Unmasking the faces of COVID: pages from a neurologist’s diary

Beyond the Fauci effect: As medical school application rates soar, medical students struggle

Medical Education
February 19, 2021

I am sitting at my desk, scribbling down notes as my pre-recorded lecture races ahead of me at two times speed. My phone buzzes with another New York Times notification about the spread of coronavirus variants. I regret turning on push notifications about breaking news, but I can’t look away now. When I consider changing the setting, I am reminded that I shouldn’t look away. I have a …

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Beyond the Fauci effect: As medical school application rates soar, medical students struggle

LGBTQ people living with HIV: considerations during COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
February 16, 2021

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world since the first reports from China in 2019, and the outbreak was characterized as a pandemic. COVID-19 does not affect everyone equally. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted LGBTQ Americans and may continue to. Prior studies have noted significant health disadvantages experienced by LGBTQ populations in the U.S. Some of the biggest health care …

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LGBTQ people living with HIV: considerations during COVID-19

7 lifestyle modifications to minimize the adverse effects of COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
February 15, 2021

As the number of people infected with and dying from COVID-19 continues to climb, many Americans may be wondering what steps they can take to mitigate the potential for infection or, if infected, what modifications can keep them healthy and lower the likelihood of severe symptoms and worse while they wait to be vaccinated.

For those who do contract the disease, 99.5 percent will …

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7 lifestyle modifications to minimize the adverse effects of COVID-19

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