Infectious Disease

5 technologies that will transform medicine post-COVID

Physician

October 9, 2021

When medical historians write about the coronavirus pandemic, they’ll likely focus on the slow U.S. response and failures of leadership that led to a tragically high death toll. But that will be only part of the story.

From the wreckage and devastation will emerge something few contemporary observers would expect: a brighter future for American health care.

Five technologies, all previously underappreciated and underutilized, will help …

Being a health care hero means we get free ChapStick

Anonymous

Physician

October 8, 2021

Guess what, everyone, I am a health care hero. I have been applauded by strangers. The Blue Angels flew over the hospital once in the pitch of COVID to salute us. I once sifted through a giant box of free chapsticks delivered to the hospital basement and grabbed one for my colleagues.

First of all, let me clarify: There is no such thing as a “hero.” It’s a social construct laypeople …

Why this physician is running out of sympathy

Richard J. Sagall, MD

Physician

October 6, 2021

Every day I read stories on the Internet and in the newspaper of the deaths of previously healthy people who died of COVID-19. They were good people, caring parents, working people who seemed like responsible citizens. What they all shared was not being immunized against COVID-19.

Maybe they were just “vaccine-hesitant” — one of those who wasn’t convinced of the value and safety of the vaccines. Maybe they didn’t understand the …

Working in a rural emergency department during the pandemic

Ginelle Zimmerman, MD

Physician

October 3, 2021

I finished residency in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. We had a ceremony limited to just the graduating class; no family or friends could attend. Then my four other colleagues of the past three years and I embarked on our next steps as physicians.

Family medicine is my passion – I went to medical school loving the idea of caring for a whole family, from pregnancy through birth to …

There was life before COVID, but we are not yet at the point of life after COVID

Huma Farid, MD

Physician

October 1, 2021

Each weekday morning, without fail, I awake to two texts.

One is a symptom checker from my hospital.

The other is a symptom checker from my son’s elementary school.

They serve as a persistent reminder that the pandemic isn’t over, even if we would all like to pretend that it is. In fact, my morning routine is filled with reminders that the pandemic isn’t over: as I pack masks for my children (with …

“We are not that great.” Gain-of-function research highlights our hubris

Iris Kulbatski, PhD

Conditions

September 29, 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has made believers out of us. The statements “I believe in science” and “follow the science” express our collective assurance that scientific innovation will continue to serve humanity and sustain us through our pandemic weariness.

Historically, our scientific pursuits have catalyzed both extraordinary accomplishments and unimaginable atrocities. The line between the two is thin and the guardrails that protect against crossing this line are easily corroded. As a …

A prescription against COVID-19: Telehealth and ivermectin

Mia Finkelston, MD and Cynthia Horner, MD

Conditions

September 28, 2021

It’s been in the news that several telehealth companies are offering patients access to the anti-parasite drug ivermectin, which while rumored by some to be an effective treatment for COVID-19 is unproven. As coronavirus deaths in the United States continue to rise, tracking at over 650,000 deaths to date and hovering around 1,500 each day, we need to remain hopeful, of sound mind. Most importantly, we need caregiving and doctoring …

Why pediatricians think about COVID differently

Krupa Bhojani Playforth, MD

Physician

September 27, 2021

Earlier this summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics made recommendations that contrasted with those from the CDC, emphasizing the need to do everything possible to prevent COVID infection in children. Specifically, they recommended that even vaccinated adults who were around unvaccinated children in schools continue to mask indoors. This more conservative stance initially caused confusion, but the CDC has since aligned their guidelines more closely with pediatricians. Nevertheless, there remain …

A pandemic is not a war. It’s a natural disaster.

Michel Accad, MD

Physician

September 26, 2021

The main reason we are seemingly so accepting of lockdowns and vaccine mandates is that we have been conditioned to view a pandemic or an epidemic as a war being waged on our society.

In wartime, we naturally expect civil liberties to be suspended. Likewise, the reasoning goes, during a pandemic we need to act in a unified way under some central command to fight this viral existential threat. Individual rights …

How to close the leadership challenge and end this COVID chapter

Davis Liu, MD

Physician

September 25, 2021

The reason that the United States hasn’t been able to reach higher vaccination rates is because of leadership failures. It’s really hard for leaders to lead transformational change during stable times. It’s infinitely harder to lead in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity)-dynamic world, but not impossible.

It’s the timeless leadership challenge.

How do you help the people you lead get from A to B?

This exchange between Fox …

I see you, COVID

Lizbeth Hingst, DO

Physician

September 23, 2021

I see you, COVID. I see you in the hospitals each day. I don on my surgical cap, scrubs, goggles, N95 mask, and gown. Are you there?

I see you in the scared eyes of my patients, in their tears, and in their regrets.

I see you in their cough, gasps for air, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and muscle aches.

I see you when they cannot smell or taste.

I see you when they have …

Read more…

I see you, COVID

A Christian physician’s message to Christian vaccine skeptics

Earl Stewart, Jr., MD

Physician

September 22, 2021

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a balm and refuse to use it.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a salve and refuse to apply it.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a cure and refuse to accept it.

And you’d think that at some point, reasonably intelligent people would get it. You’ve been somewhere in the sanctuary all your life. You grew up in the church. …

The unvaccinated and a history of cynicism

David Galinsky, MD

Physician

September 21, 2021

The vitriol that characterizes discussions about vaccines, masking, and school policies has been deeply disturbing. I am a physician who is concerned about COVID. At first, I thought that everyone would want to be vaccinated. I thought that the pandemic would cause everyone to isolate and socially distance to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. Now we know it did not turn out that way. As I reflect on …

The unvaccinated are not difficult patients

Joan Naidorf, DO

Physician

September 18, 2021

We’re getting into trouble. With headlines like “Why I am angry” and “Burnout rates at an all-time high,” physicians need to take a moment and breath. Unvaccinated people are presenting as very difficult patients that physicians dread.

In his landmark article, “Taking Care of the Hateful Patient,” Dr. James Groves highlighted four distinct patient types that doctors shrink from. Hateful patients are noted to cause negative feelings in …

How do we explain the unexplainable? Are there words for the things we’ve experienced?

Rachel Basham, RN, CCRN

Conditions

September 14, 2021

I’m usually good with words. The last year and a half of being a “front line nurse” has left me struggling to find the words. The frustration, anger, trauma, and sadness have so muddied my mind that I find it hard to sort through all of the complexities and put a name to them.

A patient told me the other day, “I know at least 60 people who have had COVID, …

Is it a badge of honor to refuse the vaccine but choose to die?

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

September 13, 2021

You know that if you don’t get vaccinated and you don’t wear a mask, you potentially will die.

You go to super spreader events, big groups at beaches, football games, baseball games … loads of people laughing and clapping, and shoulder to shoulder.

Your refusal of the mask and COVID vaccination almost seems like a passage. Beating your chest. The survivor. It won’t happen to me.

Until you can’t breathe anymore. Delta doesn’t …

The most patriotic thing you can do right now is get vaccinated

Patricia McGuire, MD

Physician

September 12, 2021

I am so tired of the freedom argument with it comes to vaccines. So tired. It didn’t really hit me until I learned more about medicine, government, and public health, just how much freedom is taken for granted.

I get it. I don’t like it when people try to tell me what to do with my body. All my life, I feel like I’ve gotten an onslaught of advice or orders …

A summary of state of the art COVID treatment

Susan Levenstein, MD

Conditions

September 10, 2021

Prevention

Our most effective weapons are lockdowns, masks, distancing, ventilation and vaccination, but we can also protect close patient contacts pharmacologically. Subcutaneous REGEN-COV (Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody combo, casirivimab plus imdevimab) lowers the rate of illness by a whopping 81.4%. This has been known since April and blessed by the FDA in July, but has yet to catch on.

Outpatient therapy

A year and …

Clearing the air our kids share: a prescription for healthy schools

Erika Maria Moseson, MD

Conditions

September 8, 2021

As a pulmonary and critical care doctor and the mother of three children too young to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, life has been harrowing. At the beginning of the summer, however, I was beginning to breathe a sigh of relief. My children had been in school last spring, and by the heroic efforts of their amazing teachers and staff, completed the school year free of sickness or quarantine from COVID-19. …

A person-to-person strategy is needed in the pandemic war

David Galinsky, MD

Physician

September 6, 2021

In June 2020, I wrote a short piece about the COVID vaccine that turned out to be prophetic. I said that the vaccine’s immunity might wane over time, that there might be bothersome side effects immediately, and that the public might ignore social distancing and mask-wearing once they were vaccinated. I worried that there would be political pressures to focus more on the economy than on public health.

And I wrote, …

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