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.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is currently “no evidence” showing that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are not at risk of becoming infected again.
“Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’ that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they …
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False certainty and blanket statements: Not even the WHO is immune
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, medical education is receiving unprecedented attention. By and large, the focus has been on the immediate problem of what to do with medical students. The answer has hinged on medical students being designated as “non-essential” to patient care, and has (for the most part) entailed avoiding clinical activities. A long-term problem that has received less attention is, why are medical students non-essential in the first place? …
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Why are medical students non-essential?
In a previous article, I have described the physician burnout epidemic as a raging river whose features included safety nets designed to catch people before “going over the falls,” the need to teach individual survival skills (e.g., resilience), evaluating your raft and river guide for safety (employers and their leadership), and so on:
The “rapid” pace of change in the health care industry is so volatile, so …
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Rebuilding a post-coronavirus culture of medicine
Before becoming a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), I was a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) nurse for decades. During that time, I often saw patients during their greatest time of need – trauma victims, transplant recipients, patients with brain tumors, ruptured aortas, and septic shock. I thought I had seen it all, but working in an improvised COVID-19 ICU has taught me to expect the unexpected, and has required …
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Please don’t call me a hero. This is what nurses have always done.
Last weekend, my partner witnessed some of the pandemic’s collateral damage in an upsurge of violent deaths via car wrecks and shootings. A patient of mine, chief of the local SWAT team, had predicted as much: he gave people two weeks at home before they started acting out.
I expected a similar weekend and was pleasantly surprised at how few calls I received by late Saturday night. But it doesn’t take …
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A neurosurgeon on call with coronavirus
I was in medical school when the world saw the news of the Zika and Ebola viruses, but never have I seen mass hysteria to this level for COVID-19. No longer is coronavirus what is depicted in a copy of First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, where it says coronavirus is a cause for the common cold. Intense coverage of the virus has been sensationalized to the point where …
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Practice social distancing because the lives of your health care workers matter
We are living in unprecedented times that will be pivotal for our beloved profession. In the Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the period of time in which the story was set was pivotal in the evolution of society and politics. Our current times may provide the setting that allows physicians to regain independence from the medical-industrial complex that is the current state of the delivery of health care …
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Is there opportunity for physicians in the pandemic?
I am an ER physician in Jacksonville, FL.
Yesterday, I learned that a top health official in New Zealand was reprimanded for taking his family to the beach. He did this after orders had been given to stay home, and strict social distancing had been mandated. This was not his only offense — he was also reported to have been seen riding his mountain bike. New Zealand’s outbreak has appeared to …
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Social distance, yes, but don’t be afraid of the outdoors
We know that the past two months haven’t been easy. We know about the sleepless nights, anger, tears, depression, and anxiety. We know all of this because we know what trauma does to a person, and you are in the middle of experiencing a repeated trauma. The trauma of watching patients die in ways you’ve never seen, the trauma of watching colleagues die, the trauma of knowing what exactly this …
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To every physician from the psychiatrists who are here to support you
In March, I began receiving photographs on my social media apps of my daughter’s Match Day celebration seven years ago at Tulane Medical School.
It was a glorious day, in particular, because my daughter got her first choice: Not only would she be an internal medicine resident at a top-tier hospital in New York, with a reputation for excellent training, but she would be in the same city as her sister …
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Coronavirus and my doctor daughter
If you’ve felt an uptick in urges to munch and crunch your way through the day since COVID-19 has revamped our lives, you’re not alone. It’s hard enough not to fall prey to emotional and mindless eating in the best of times. Enduring skyrocketing stress while hunkered down, we need compassion for what we’re experiencing and a redoubling of attunement to emotions and appetite regulation in order to stay healthy …
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COVID-19 isolation doesn’t have to lead to overeating
With the CDC reversing their guidelines and now recommending that the general public wear masks, many states are quickly requiring them. While wearing a mask is something tangible that people can do to feel safe and makes for a nice post on Instagram, they will, unfortunately, do little, if anything, to stop this pandemic. In fact, this crisis will only worsen as people begin taking non-essential …
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Do masks promote a false sense of security?
Coronavirus is not going away anytime soon. Health care workers are already exhausted. How will the U.S. maintain a medical workforce over the long term? There is no plan in place.
Hospitals started reorganizing and developing virus infection protocols weeks ago. Most health care workers have been in PPE for weeks. They are wearing masks, goggles, face shields, gloves for their whole shift. Many nurses work twelve-hour shifts. Anxiety levels are …
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Who will care for the caregivers?
Coronavirus has essentially altered life for the foreseeable future, and it’s clear to experts this public health crisis will only be defeated with development and implementation of a vaccine. While Coronavirus has shown us what life is can be without ONE vaccine, there is still the issue of acceptance of vaccines we already have. The resurgence of whooping cough this decade, the 2014 California measles outbreak and ~1200 cases of …
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Eliminating religious exemptions from school vaccination in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic
Since the first case of COVID-19 on January 21st, there have been countless stories highlighting the health care heroes. Individuals are risking their lives and demonstrating unanticipated sacrifices to close the wounds on a bleeding health care system. Amongst those watching these stories are students of future health care professions, getting a glimpse at what their lives might look like should there be another outbreak. Common sense would suggest supporting …
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How the USMLE fails COVID-19
Multiple times a week, I get messages asking some variation of, “How are you holding up?” I am neither an anesthesiologist, critical care, or ER physician, so I’m not three inches away from exposure while intubating patients with coronavirus. I am also not a nurse or respiratory therapist in a room dozen of times a day administering life-saving medications, performing vital assessments, or carefully managing the oxygen lifeline. I’m certainly …
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Doctors, how are you holding up? You could answer in one of 5 ways.
