Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!
“To create a healthier, more just, and more equitable world, we must confront the truth, and that requires an act of collective courage. Perhaps there needs to be a whole new consciousness that abandons ideas of reforms …
Public health requires collective courage [PODCAST]
Monkeypox has been in the news since May 2022. Barely recovering from the anxieties of COVID-19, the natural question in our mind is how is this all going to play out? We might not have accurate predictions yet, but almost six months into the outbreak, we have more information that we can rely on.
The graphs below show the number of confirmed monkeypox cases on a daily basis and on a …
Where are we going with monkeypox?
Patients running rampant- unmasked, hand unwashed, undistanced. You stand in the nurse’s workstation, watching the chaos ensue while holding the positive COVID test results in your hands. The world slows as you think, “How am I ever going to control this one?”
This scene is unfortunately ever present in our current health system. Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has put constant pressure on the medical system, uniquely affecting health care …
COVID-19 and psychiatric units: Keeping clinicians and patients safe throughout the pandemic
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!
“ME/CFS is a complex multi-system illness that destroys lives (essentially killing the person yet leaving them alive). It leaves patients with unimaginable fatigue, post-exertional malaise (meaning that minor exertion makes them feel worse), cognitive deficits, cardiovascular dysfunction, …
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID [PODCAST]
The CDC has updated its COVID masking and quarantine guidelines as children return to school and more adults return to work at the end of summer.
Unfortunately, the new, less restrictive guidelines are premature.
As most people know, the current COVID variant is extremely contagious. Many argue that since a majority of the public has already been exposed to COVID either by vaccination or infection, we can relax into less vigilance.
However, it …
The consequences of unmasking and ending quarantines
This piece started out focusing on the impact of colds on our lives, particularly if COVID is now “just a cold.”
But now it’s personal.
My husband and I escaped COVID until now by being very careful until we got vaccinated. Once vaccinated, we focused on living our lives safely – no eating at indoor restaurants (there are plenty of outdoor venues to choose from), masking indoors and testing when gathering with …
The impact of a single COVID infection
The twice-vaxxed, twice-boosted First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, tested negative for COVID after taking Paxlovid. And then she rebounded, just like her husband did weeks ago or like Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief Medical Advisor to the president Anthony Fauci did in June or like the 1 to Read more…
Do we need to temper our expectations of Paxlovid?
The health care industry will never be the same again following the COVID-19 pandemic. We can’t risk dying from a virus that had already killed so many people and disintegrated fruitful lives the world over. We need to use new protocols, technological advances, and safety measures to safeguard ourselves from other possible viruses.
Health care is a complex industry where one small change can have a whopping impact. Unfortunately, the last …
Why health care will never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic
I am a pulmonary-critical care medicine physician. I had a medical issue in 2020 and was on limited call responsibilities. When I came back, it was in the throes of the first wave of COVID.
It goes without saying that the last three years or so have been very difficult for everyone in the medical profession. We lost a truly horrific number of patients to COVID — in the early days, …
Coping mechanisms for medical professionals
Thinking back to 2020, concerning the emergence of COVID-19 and the first hard lockdowns all over the world. Individuals from all walks of life were frightened, locking themselves in their homes for fear of being infected. Yet, frontline providers and health care workers had to carry on with their daily jobs. Were they less scared than the nonmedical layman or immune to the virus? Unfortunately, they weren’t. They were just …
Trauma and burnout among frontline health care workers
I understand it’s been over two years since the World Health Organization announced the coronavirus pandemic, and we are tired.
I speak for the thousands of health care workers and frontline workers: We are exhausted, we feel taken for granted, and for many of us, we are leaving the industry. In some cases, we went from health care heroes being villanized as if we somehow benefited from the pandemic. So many …
Monkeypox and the prolonged COVID pandemic could seal the fate of the health care system
On June 7th, 2022, the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in adults by the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration. The vaccine has already been authorized in many other nations, including Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and more, making the U.S. one of the last major nations to approve the vaccine.
The technology behind Novavax differs from the already prominent …
Novavax may be able to provide equitable access to another vaccine alternative
A friend called me for medical advice two weeks ago. He’s single, in his 30s and generally healthy, but he’d developed a dry cough with mild congestion. After a self-administered COVID-19 test turned up negative results, he remained suspicious he could be infected.
He was set to fly west in a couple of days for a conference and dreaded the thought of infecting other passengers. I recommended a PCR test if …
Get ready for a COVID culture shock
ADVERTISEMENT
Day 1. I spent Thursday, my day off, golfing. Friday, I was scheduled to see patients and do surgery on the non-English-speaking mother of a patient I delivered a long time ago (who I didn’t really remember). She remembered me, though, and brought her mother from an hour away to see me. But as I coughed and felt slightly feverish, I realized that I had not felt well …
Chronicles of my COVID isolation
Facts combat fear
It’s hard to believe the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the U.S. only a year and a half ago. Like many others, I welcomed the COVID-19 vaccine as a triumph of global cooperation that leveraged decades of research and a beacon of hope that life could eventually return to normal. Yet I was so surprised the first time a pregnant patient told me …
How to help rewrite the COVID-19 information playbook
When a congressional candidate was recently cheered on after demanding the execution of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, it was another reminder that civil discourse and trust in science are continuing to dwindle.
A controversial household name in the sciences, Dr. Fauci was the first scientist to make the cover of Time Magazine in its 100-year history. Well-established scientists can easily recognize Fauci’s important contributions to …
Distrust in science is a cancer to public safety
COVID-19 melted down the world at a very inopportune time in history. Just as medicine was getting a handle on previously intractable conditions, from sophisticated diabetes management to less invasive surgical procedures, a new threat that devastates our population with few good treatments overwhelms health care.
Medical workers come to the rescue, as we always do, though at a personal and communal price. Somebody else keeps our food available, allows our …
Doctors as organizational stewards
While the world has spent the last two years laser-focused on the COVID pandemic, another public health threat is still lurking in the shadows: the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognized since the early 1900s, yet rigorous research over the past decade has illuminated the magnitude of the threat and its implications for future infection control. More than 35 thousand patients die from antibacterial resistance every …
Combating antimicrobial resistance during COVID: What clinicians need to know
“At the interpersonal level, people can help to normalize vaccination as the standard among their friends and family–not by lecturing or hectoring, simply by openly sharing that they themselves are vaccinated. Health care providers also have a role to play in de-sensationalizing the issue and making discussions about COVID vaccination a more routine …
Health care communications during the pandemic era [PODCAST]
During the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), I became a high-school pharmacy technician. My senior year of high school ended in gray scrubs, gloves, and a mask. While I knew I was signing up for long hours of selling medication and administering COVID tests, I was not prepared for what else I would learn.
On my first day on the job, a couple approached me and asked …
Reflecting on my experience as a teenage health care worker during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
