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 alarming risk of COVID-19 in nursing homes

Conditions and Diseases
March 3, 2020

An outbreak of coronavirus disease in a nursing home near Seattle is prompting urgent calls for precautionary tactics at America’s elder care facilities, where residents are at heightened risk of serious complications from the illness because of the dual threat of age and close living conditions.

As of Monday afternoon, the emergence of the novel contagious illness at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, had left four residents dead and …

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The alarming risk of COVID-19 in nursing homes

How many people have coronavirus? We don’t really know.

Conditions and Diseases
March 3, 2020

It has been nearly three months since the first cases of a new coronavirus pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China, and it is now a global outbreak. And yet, despite nearly 90,000 infections worldwide (most of them in China), the world still doesn’t have a clear picture of some basic information about this outbreak.

In recent weeks, a smattering of scientific papers and government statements have begun to sketch the …

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How many people have coronavirus? We don’t really know.

During the coronarvirus outbreak: A failure to recognize physicians’ worth

Physician
March 3, 2020

Recently, Congressman Jimmy Gomez, D-California, questioned HHS Secretary Alex Azar about improper preparation of health care workers before and during their interactions with Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China. A whistleblower reported to the California congressman that while assisting evacuees housed at Travis Air Force Base, federal health employees were not given personal protective equipment or briefed on protocols to avoid exposure and spread of the novel virus COVID-19.

More shocking than …

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During the coronarvirus outbreak: A failure to recognize physicians’ worth

COVID-19 will expose EMTALA and the physician shortage

Conditions and Diseases
February 29, 2020

Coronavirus, a.k.a. COVID-19, is lurking on the edges of the United States.  What it will do here has yet to be seen.  I was initially very concerned since I work on the front lines in community emergency medicine.  For the last week or so, I have felt a little better after reading several articles. I suspect it will not have a high lethality among otherwise healthy individuals.  But I’m no …

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COVID-19 will expose EMTALA and the physician shortage

As the coronavirus spreads, should unvaccinated people be allowed to fly?

Conditions and Diseases
February 28, 2020

As the coronavirus spreads, the nation’s leading health official told a Senate committee on Feb. 25 that “we cannot hermetically seal off the United States to a virus.”

The comments from Alex Azar II, head of Health and Human Services, heightened concerns about the effects of the coronavirus in the U.S., which so far has sickened a relatively small number – 57 – of people in the …

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As the coronavirus spreads, should unvaccinated people be allowed to fly?

The problems with testing for novel coronavirus

Conditions and Diseases
February 28, 2020

Just weeks into the federal government’s efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, a new California case has exposed weaknesses in the testing procedures that could be masking more widespread reach of the disease.

A woman in Solano County, California, who hadn’t traveled abroad or had contact with another known patient with the illness was diagnosed with the virus Wednesday, raising concerns that cases are going undetected because of the federal government’s narrow …

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The problems with testing for novel coronavirus

How businesses are handling COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
February 28, 2020

Chances are, if you work for a large company, you received an email like one sent to Volkswagen employees Monday: Coronavirus concerns mean some limits on business travel, everyone should remember to “wash your hands frequently” and stay home if sick.

As the viral illness, dubbed COVID-19, continues to spread, some employers are canceling conferences and limiting travel, checking supplies, and dusting off their emergency preparedness plans, just as they have …

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How businesses are handling COVID-19

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