COVID-19

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.

Safe restaurant practices as crisis therapy: lessons from a bartender

Cory Michael, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 27, 2020

With a leftover airline credit to spend, I recently decided to take a quick trip down to southern California and make one of my routine treks along Interstate 5 from San Diego to Orange County. I wanted to see how the area was dealing with the pandemic and enjoy some sun.

No trip would be complete without a visit to my favorite bar in Encinitas, which had expanded its barbecue offerings …

Ensuring equity and coverage for future coronavirus vaccinations

Daniel H. Low, MD, Amish Dave, MD, MPH, Rajneet Lamba, MD, and Nancy Belcher, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

June 26, 2020

With promising early results of a coronavirus vaccine, there is increased excitement among the American public and policy-makers for a possible resolution to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, despite cheerleading by the scientific community and industry leaders, numerous uncertainties remain. Even with a favorable trial, the earliest “doable” COVID-19 vaccine, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious …

A doctor plans a funeral during a pandemic

Samuel O. Jones, MD

Physician

June 26, 2020

“A great man was lost today.” Those were my words to my wife at 1 a.m. several weeks ago on the phone, in reference to her father. While she was attending to our younger boys two hours away at our home, I was staying with my mother-in-law, doing the best I could to help my father-in-law struggle with end-of-life issues. He had tragically been diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer just …

How can we stop the spread of coronavirus?

David Galinsky, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 25, 2020

I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and I do not want anyone to infect me. Because of my leukemia, I have low immunoglobulin levels, so I am extremely cautious. If I were to become infected, it would mean that I did something to put myself in danger. We have been telling people for the last three months to socially distance, but people still want to go to bars and restaurants and …

The superhero within during the time of COVID-19

Lauren Fine, MD & Vijay Rajput, MD

Physician

June 25, 2020

Over the past few months, my 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son have been confined almost entirely to our house and backyard to shelter them from the coronavirus pandemic. They know that “the virus” is dangerous and invisible. However, like superheroes facing adversity, they found their own escape from the confines of their world to their imaginary world of superheroes. During the day, my son insists on wearing a frayed and …

Is COVID-19 contraction risk lower in ER than in routine activities?

Terence Sanger, MD, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

June 24, 2020

With COVID-19 continuing to spread, some might assume that the one place to avoid is a hospital emergency room. After all, the space is filled with health care providers who work in close contact with sick people.

This assumption could be harmful to a person in need of emergent medical care, and now, thanks to a study we recently conducted, we also know it’s likely incorrect.

Our study found that health care …

A new ICU reality that may not disappear soon

Aula Ramo, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 23, 2020

Barriers. Barriers of yellow tape and plastic mark our makeshift rooms. Red zippers define the “ENTER” and “EXIT.” In the middle is a window of still clearer plastic, partially obscured by taped ECGs. Barriers are put up to keep us safe, but they can do so much more, if we let them.

A tap on the plastic window has become the universal command of attention from the nurses, residents, and respiratory …

Confessions of a non-clinical ID physician during COVID-19 times

Toyin M. Falusi, MD

Physician

June 23, 2020

After 20 years of working at a hospital, I was ready to try something new. I had provided primary and specialty care to adults living with HIV or viral hepatitis for two decades, taught scores of students, residents, and fellows, successfully led our hepatitis program, conducted clinical research in the areas of HIV, disparities, HCV and aging, and for the last two years, I was senior director of HIV services …

A physician learns from the lessons of running

Anthony Fleg, MD

Physician

June 23, 2020

Slow. Sluggish. Feet dragging. Legs heavy.

The run was not the effortless morning wake-up I had envisioned when I sat on front steps tying the shoes. The gazelle I had envisioned, gently bouncing over the trails, had turned into more of a hippo waddling along.

Then, around 15 minutes into the run, I remembered a friend’s wisdom. “Don’t fight the current. Find it and flow with it.”

So, flow with it became my …

COVID-19 unmasks a broken system

Fariha Shafi, MD and Rayyan Abid

Physician

June 22, 2020

2020 has presented us with unprecedented challenges. We’re six months into a pandemic that was only officially recognized half as long ago. This crisis was ignored, discredited, and camouflaged, unnecessarily worsening today’s chaos. It’s baffling that the “strongest” leader of the free world was presented with such a predictable series of events already occurring in other nations, yet we were dumbfounded. We should have had a head start! Regardless, our …

Read more…

COVID-19 unmasks a broken system

In memory of all the fathers lost to COVID-19

Jennifer Shaer, MD

Physician

June 20, 2020

In April, I lost my dad to COVID-19, and this Father’s Day will be very difficult. As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that many people out there suffer the same fate. Each death is not just a statistic. Each number represents a person with a family. My dad was an amazing father, husband, uncle, grandfather, and friend, and he will be missed.

As difficult as it was to …

The pandemic exposes the need for humanism

Dominique Gelmann

Conditions and Diseases

June 20, 2020

Before COVID-19, I could only ponder the importance of human connection in medicine, of narrowing the physical and emotional space between physician and patient. I wondered where we had wandered as a profession, one struggling to reconnect with the humanistic principles upon which it was founded. Though the incredible value of modern medical advancement is undeniable, progress in the field has been mirrored by a regression in engaged presence. The …

What does it mean to be responsible during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Rebecca Elia, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 19, 2020

As women physicians, especially physician-moms and women physicians of color, we have handled and achieved more than the vast majority of the population, in order to reach our current status of physician.

We do because we can.

We are Superwomen. Until we’re not.

Without thought, we take on others’ responsibilities, because we can.

In addition to our own personal responsibility to ourselves and to our loved ones, we take on the responsibilities of our …

Masks are not a partisan issue. They are a public health issue. #AmericaMaskUp

Vineet Arora, MD, Shikha Jain, MD, Laura Zimmermann, MD, Ali Khan, MD, Amisha Wallia, MD, and Eve Bloomgarden, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 19, 2020

The second surge of COVID-19 that was predicted after individuals across the country celebrated the Memorial Day holiday seems to have begun. Cases in Arizona have nearly doubled since the holiday weekend as hospitals in the state are reaching capacity. Oregon and Utah have paused reopening in the midst of spikes in numbers of cases …

How COVID is exposing poor working conditions in the U.S.

Irene Martinez, MD

Health Policy

June 19, 2020

It has been about three weeks since I’ve had my favorite tortilla. The plant that makes them, located on the lower west side of Chicago, closed after one of its workers died of COVID-19. Unlike workers in the meat-packing industry, the employees of this particular tortilla plant were not forced to go back to work. Instead, the factory closed to perform a thorough cleaning Read more…

How COVID is exposing poor working conditions in the U.S.

Are you a mask wimp? Get over it.

Raghav Gupta, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 19, 2020

As the reopening was being evaluated, I found myself contemplating the routine use of a mask in public. I was already wearing it 12 hours a day in the hospital. On one of the clinic days, after constantly conversing while wearing the mask, I also found out the hard way that I don’t have the taste buds for non-woven sub-micron thin polypropylene spaghetti. The prospect of wearing one while going …

Read more…

Are you a mask wimp? Get over it.

The nation’s best hospitals must remain focused on COVID-19

William F. Parker, MD, Monica E. Peek, MD, MPH, Brian H. Williams, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 18, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over

COVID-19 continues to devastate communities across the U.S., with 100,000 deaths and climbing. Health care workers have rushed to the frontlines without hesitation to respond to the needs of our patients. Fortunately, due to social distancing and other public health measures, the coronavirus caseload may be plateauing and even decreasing. As a nation, we have largely avoided the Read more…

The nation’s best hospitals must remain focused on COVID-19

When COVID hits memory care

Heather Awad, MD

Conditions and Diseases

June 18, 2020

“Have you ever been on a cruise?” Betty asks.

It’s a strange question in the age of COVID-19, where thousands of people have been stranded on large ships over the past few months. I’m a wound physician who rounds at nursing homes, and my gloved hand holds her warm, wrinkled foot. I’m looking at a wound on her ankle that is almost healed.

“I went on a cruise before, but it was …

Read more…

When COVID hits memory care

COVID-19 through the eyes of an ophthalmology resident

Joshua H. Uhr, MD

Physician

June 18, 2020

Since the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 has upended our lives in a turn of events that, just months ago, would have only seemed possible in a science fiction movie. What is traditionally an exciting time of year for medical trainees has instead become a time of tremendous uncertainty and fear.

Our clinics have grinded to a halt. As residents, we rely heavily on our patients to learn our craft; each patient …

How NEJM’s ethical recommendations on the fair allocation of scarce medical resources perpetuate inequity

Amalia Elvira Gomez-Rexrode and Daniel Rizk

Health Policy

June 17, 2020

This past March, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published six ethical recommendations to guide the allocation of scarce medical resources during COVID-19. In their second recommendation, they stated that “critical COVID-19 interventions — testing, PPE, ICU beds, ventilators, therapeutics, and vaccines — should go first to frontline health care workers and others who care for ill patients.” This makes sense because health care workers …

COVID-19

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