Essential clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community.
There is a phenomenon sweeping across various medical circles on social media that is forcing people to address accusations from those who were not on the front lines of COVID at the beginning of the pandemic. Though I have refused to pay much attention to the details, I have become more and more enraged at the audacity and frank ignorance that it takes to judge when not in the arena. …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!
Join us as we chat with medical writer Steven Marshall about the evolving health care landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the transformative effects on health care delivery, the availability of testing, vaccination, and therapies, and …
Calling all health care personnel: EMTs, paramedics, nurses, CNAs, respiratory therapists, police, firefighters. All of you.
You’ve been cursed at, spat upon, hit, and scratched by fingernails. You never got that 30-minute break during those 12 long hours. You had to beg to use the restroom. Your staffing was minimal, and your 24/7 manager was nowhere to be found. Your fellow doctors are shouting at you, and patients’ family members are …
As the current COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the globe, many are left wondering when the next pandemic will occur. The reality is that pandemics are not a new phenomenon, and throughout history, we have seen numerous instances of infectious diseases causing widespread devastation.
While we cannot predict with certainty when the next pandemic will occur, there are certain circumstances under which they are more likely to occur.
One such circumstance …
In a recent article in Health Affairs, U.N. Foundation vice president Peter Yeo and former Director of The Global Fund Mark Dybul, MD, broke down the elements and imperatives of a process underway to develop a better approach to pandemic preparedness. Currently in draft form, the “Pandemic Accord” is being shepherded by the World Health Organization at the behest of its 194 Member States after the global COVID-19 response called …
An excerpt from Long Illness: A Practical Guide to Surviving, Healing, and Thriving. Copyright ©2023. Available from Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Let’s say that you have it all together: you are accepting your illness and it is enriching your life. Now turn on the TV, pick up …
When I was growing up, I remember my father saying the phrase, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” In today’s world, I find myself often recalling those words. Most of life these days should not be taken at face value.
It also appears that if you shout out falsehoods frequently enough, then it seems that members of extreme political groups will believe it as the gospel truth. …
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event for worldwide health care. The call to action for organizations included setting up mass testing sites to serve their communities. I helped set up multiple locations across several counties using a mobile model. We tested hundreds of patients each day in various places. Once the vaccine was approved, we began our vaccination efforts using our mobile model and mass vaccine sites, including …
“Hispanic community makes up more than half of coronavirus cases in Southwest Michigan county” was the headline in the newspaper that caught my eye in August 2020 – that infamous year that the nation went into lockdown to prevent the spread of what was still a new and emerging virus.
It shocked me to realize that only three counties west of my Southcentral Michigan home, Latinos were …
While it appears we are on the downhill slope of COVID-19’s integration into everyday life, burnout rates are rising, and organizational trust is taking a nose-dive. Aren’t we supposed to be in the post-disaster recovery phase? What is the bottleneck holding us back from moving toward our new horizon? On the surface, issues like operating losses, staffing shortages, and scarcity of supplies appear to be a few of the big …
Recently, I heard a news report regarding several state attorneys general suing the federal government to eliminate the requirement that health care providers be immunized against COVID. They argued that as fully immunized individuals still contract COVID, and that allowing unimmunized people to be rehired would relieve provider shortage, the regulation was unhelpful.
Initially, I agreed, as rehiring these individuals would generate some relief for those staff members who have worked …
ADVERTISEMENT
Like interest rates and food prices, burnout among health care providers continues to rise.
From my perch—as a hospitalist in a large tertiary hospital—the sheer terror of the early days of the COVID pandemic has been replaced by a grinding fatigue fueled by staffing shortages across the entire health care system.
Patients and their families are burned out too, frustrated by delays and shortcomings in care that inevitably arise in an overworked …
During the COVID pandemic health care workers needed to work tirelessly to correct the false information that politicians easily spread through the country. The President made claims that the virus was not real, that physicians were getting financial kickbacks from using COVID on death certificates, and that health care workers were benefiting from the pandemic. Physicians, nurses, and staff needed to talk to patients about COVID, and it really took …
It was the year 2020 — the month of March. The world shifted on its axis in ways we could not imagine. The job of a physician-mother is one of never-ending tightrope walking while juggling batons on fire and crystal figurines, all while herding cats.
You see, the physician and mother are so intertwined in our being, one cannot leave either role for the other at their respective doorway. There is …
ADVERTISEMENT
An excerpt from On Medicine as Colonialism.
In Central Falls, Rhode Island, where I work, the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard. People who live in Central Falls, the smallest and poorest city in Rhode Island, live in densely packed houses, often eight or ten people to a two-bedroom apartment, sharing one bathroom …
The COVID ICU is abuzz with monitors beeping and doctors and nurses rushing from bed to bed to care for critically ill patients, most on ventilators. The machines – dialysis, vents, pumps – sound off their rhythmic repetitions; breaths are pushed in and pulled out, and meds are dripped. Only the patients themselves are silent. We know this, and we hear this, but we are not there. It’s thhe height …
“No, no, no! I’m having a nightmare!” She shrieked through the phone. I couldn’t bear to hear it as words fell clumsily out of my mouth. “Your husband couldn’t breathe on his own. We had to put him on a ventilator. I’m so sorry.”
I was apologizing already. I’m sure she knew that it wasn’t a good sign when a physician opened with an apology. “What does that mean?” she stuttered. …
ADVERTISEMENT
The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on long-term care in Canada. During the first two waves in 2020, over 80 percent of all Canadian COVID-19 deaths happened in long-term care homes. While vaccination and policy changes have helped to reduce the number of deaths, long-term care homes are still experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and severe staffing shortages.
The people who provide front-line care to our most vulnerable seniors in long-term care have experienced …
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
