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.

Flattening the curve of COVID’s emotional impact

Mary R. Talen, PhD and Deborah Edberg, MD

Conditions and Diseases

May 22, 2020

For weeks, our health care workforce has been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic staring straight at mortality – their patients and their own. They have been single-mindedly focused on the task at hand, doing what needs to be done while instinctually suppressing their emotional response. The job requires this, and they have done it well.

Yet, the tragic suicide of Dr. Lorna Breen has brought focus in a devastating …

Back to school in the pandemic era

Bernard Leo Remakus, MD

Conditions and Diseases

May 22, 2020

As of May 17, 2020, there are approximately 1.5 million documented cases of COVID-19 in the United States. Of those infected, 90,000 have died.

The current population of the United States is estimated to be 331 million. This means COVID-19 infections have only been confirmed in less than one-half of 1 percent of Americans.

This number does not include those who have acquired the virus but not had their infection verified by …

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Back to school in the pandemic era

Is everyone anxious? The mental toll of the pandemic.

Sarah C. Smith, DO

Conditions and Diseases

May 22, 2020

The chart for the first patient of the morning states, “elevated blood pressure for two weeks.” As I enter the room, I see a frail, elderly woman perched gingerly in the chair. She has on large sunglasses and a fabric mask. She looks apprehensive, so I introduce myself quickly. Before COVID-19, I would shake her hand, but times have changed. Before I even sit down, she immediately shows …

Charting in uncharted territory: Scribing during COVID-19

Gazal Homayouni

Conditions and Diseases

May 21, 2020

On Friday, March 27, 2020, California went on lockdown in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It changed every Californian’s life, including my own. As the newly appointed chief scribe, the possibility that I would be jobless by the time Monday rolled around, was the last of my worries. What would happen to the patients who depended on our care? Or the physicians, nurses, and administrators that kept the center …

Observations from “seeing” patients on the other side of the phone

Sucharita Kher, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

Little did I know when I selected my sub-specialty during residency that 15 years later, we would be at the forefront of a pandemic. Over the last eight weeks, I have, just like many physicians trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine, spent countless hours in the intensive care unit (ICU) treating patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Medical literature surrounding the critical care management of …

What is routine? Preventative care in the age of COVID.

Kaci McCleary, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

Since the arrival of COVID-19 in America, most health care systems have adopted a policy delaying non-essential or non-urgent procedures and appointments in the hopes of preserving PPE and minimizing interpersonal exposure. Despite resultant furloughs, frustrations, and massive financial losses, the practice remains relatively non-controversial as the safest course for patients and staff. Numerous professional societies have subsequently released guidelines defining what kinds of conditions can and should be deferred. …

Words of encouragement to physicians and trainees during the pandemic

Candice Williams, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

As a fellow physician colleague, I felt compelled to address what medical personnel is experiencing in the COVID-19 pandemic. Needless to say, we’ve never been here before, and I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the gravity of the situation, its effects on trainees and attending physicians across the globe. While this is not a discussion about the virus, I urge you to please follow credible sources of information, …

How the COVID-19 pandemic is traumatizing health care professionals

Rebecca Elia, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

Many of us (especially psychiatrists and physician coaches) have been warning the medical profession at large for weeks now that we are headed for unprecedented numbers of physicians, nurses, other health care workers, and first responders suffering from PTSD. A free support group of psychiatrists for physicians formed rapidly. Several articles have been written. Physician suicides during this pandemic have made the news. And the NYT finally published an article …

A chaplain’s reflections in long-term care in the early days of COVID-19

Michele Mickie Micklewright, DMin

Conditions and Diseases

May 21, 2020

Astor lies in a reclining wheelchair, surrounded by community, gathered for morning prayer. A rosary, woven between folded fingers rests upon her belly.

Astor murmurs: “Help me. Help me. I am all alone.”

Today, the last Friday in March, I am assisting another resident as he leads the Divine Mercy Chaplet, a meditative Catholic prayer using the beads of the rosary as a guide. In younger years, Astor found this prayer to …

After you finish reading articles on the internet, I will be here to treat you

Melhim Bou Alwan, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

With the rise of the internet, people started exploring ways to get medical advice online. The medical community was initially humored by this development, thinking it is a cute way for patients to look up their symptoms before coming to see us, their doctors.

The next stage in our response was irritation. As more people flooded our offices, our emergency rooms, and our hospital wards demanding treatments …

Why direct primary care is thriving in COVID-19

Thomas Rhyne White, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

I grew up a New York Yankees baseball fan in the fifties and sixties. Among the many stars on the Yankees, none became more famous for one-liners and quips than #8, Yogi Berra.

Yogi’s famous reminder, “It ain’t over til it’s over,” seems so fitting today as we await some sort of resolution to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(For any Lenny Kravitz fans, out there, yes, he recorded a song by the same …

I’m a physician during a pandemic. Please don’t ask me how I’m doing.

Leto Quarles, MD

Physician

May 21, 2020

When I wear a mask over my face, I am protecting both of us.

When I wear a mask over my feelings, I am protecting both of us, too.

When you ask me, “How are you doing?” this is why I have no answer.

Four days a week, I have a (currently mostly virtual) primary care practice taking care of manageable problems, trying to teach folks how to take care of their chronic …

In this pandemic, the reality is bigger than any headline

Daniel Hopkins, MD

Conditions and Diseases

May 20, 2020

In January, we learned of an emerging threat in China, a variant of the frightening SARS virus, but worse—more infectious. Since then, we learned China, the first to both see and successfully manage its outbreak, seriously under-detected the disease. According to a widely circulated computer model study, true cases were probably around seven times greater than the official count. Calculations published a …

COVID is not a great equalizer

Ritodhi Chatterjee

Health Policy

May 20, 2020

Some media outlets and public figures have heralded the ongoing pandemic as a great equalizer, referencing the pathogen’s indiscriminate spread and disregard for national borders and tax brackets.

The sobering mortality statistics, however, dispense any notion of an equal-opportunity crisis, revealing a familiar theme among public health challenges in America: significant racial disparities exist, and communities of color are disproportionately affected.

CDC data show that blacks account for 29% of confirmed infections …

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COVID is not a great equalizer

I have been thinking a lot about Dr. Lorna Breen

Carolyn Anne McClain, MD

Physician

May 20, 2020

Dr. Lorna Breen, an ER physician in New York City, killed herself after working the front lines in the pandemic. Her death has created a call to action. The headlines read that healthcare workers are suffering; they are heroes; they need support. Dr. Lorna Breen was 49 years old. I am 49 years old. I am also a successful ER physician on the front lines of the pandemic. I can’t …

The safe return to elective surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital for the economic viability of health systems

Mary Dale Peterson, MD

Physician

May 20, 2020

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

It is the ultimate irony that health care professionals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic are among the highest risk, not only for exposure to the deadly virus, but economically. Whether they are inundated with COVID-19 patients or still awaiting …

Will the pandemic derail medical students’ career paths?

Allison Linehan

Medical Education

May 20, 2020

As I sit here and stare at my computer screen for the 11th hour today, my attention has drifted from my hypothetical study material to reality.

Over the past two months, I’ve spent hours on WebEx lectures as opposed to learning from patients, hours on video lessons instead of casual chats with residents and attendings on the wards, hours on virtual cases instead of seeing, diagnosing, and treating patients myself, hours …

COVID-19 as a threat to wellness

Elizabeth Sage Epstein, MD

Physician

May 19, 2020

I believe physician wellness is essential to an effective doctor-patient relationship and an optimal healing environment. Thus, I approached my intern year with a sense of curiosity about what wellness would look like during a time that is well-known to be a particularly rigorous portion of residency. Having heard sentiments of “doom and gloom” from physicians who had walked the path before me, I was ready to experience the reality …

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COVID-19 as a threat to wellness

How are the residents doing during the pandemic?

Maggie Connolly, MD

Medical Education

May 19, 2020

When the director of my general surgery program asked for a report on how the pandemic was affecting the residents, I queried my colleagues, promising anonymity to encourage candor. I received a wide variety of responses and reactions. Some are thriving; others are not.

Overall, everyone understands that this is a historic crisis that we will recount at the end of our careers. All are grateful to face the challenge at …

Upset with the government’s pandemic response? Let’s elect more scientists and doctors.

Shahdabul Faraz, MD

Health Policy

May 19, 2020

As a physician on the frontlines, l have watched in dismay as many U.S. states have begun to reopen from the lockdown. This is despite the fact that most of them do not fulfill the recommendations set forth by the White House. Those guidelines ask for a “downward trajectory” in newly diagnosed cases or in the percentage of positive tests. Some have criticized …

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