We have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, and its disruptions to our lives, for a year. And all the news reports, the dire warnings, and the messages of doom and gloom reinforce a feeling of despair as we face yet another week of virtual school, along with time away from the activities and the people we love. We have hit a collective pandemic wall of hopelessness. It is easy to …
A dose of positivity? Just what the doctor ordered.
There is such beauty that arises when we simply smile at our children’s faces. Their roaring belly laughs, their absolute delight in catching snowflakes on their tongues on an early February afternoon, and their joyful playground adventures just a few days prior when the weather graced us with sunshine and a peek into the hopeful Spring ahead of us.
This is the hope I find so uplifting …
My heart as a physician has been weighted with the pain I have witnessed
Applause every evening, volunteers sewing masks, personal phone calls, and check-ins – these are a few examples of the support that helped us get through the initial, brutal onslaught of COVID in New York City last spring.
A year later, many hospitals across the country are full to bursting, the staff is exhausted, and medical science is still unable to save thousands of patients from dying in isolation. And we know …
In the midst of our COVID crisis, we must learn to take care of ourselves. And each other.
During these early weeks of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, the response across the country has been, well, odd. Unlike any other vaccine that’s been administered, the reactions to this one have ranged from elation to envy to fear to anger.
On December 14, 2020, Sandra Lindsey, a nurse in a hospital in Queens, New York, was the first American to receive the vaccine. At least for a day or two, she became …
COVID vaccine battles are as strange as the disease
A COVID-free future is within our reach – a future where it’s safe to hug again and where our smiles no longer need to be hidden behind a mask. To get there, we will need a robust vaccination drive. We will need Canadians to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated. But we will also need to be patient. Immunizing the country won’t happen overnight. It will be …
Vaccination and trust in science and patience is the only way out of this pandemic
In the COVID-19 environment, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) is the norm for clinicians. Monthly, U.S. health care workers use 89 million masks. While these masks help prevent the spread of disease, PPE creates barriers to effective communication that is requiring clinicians to learn new techniques for interacting with patients. Learning new verbal and non-verbal techniques to overcome PPE communication barriers is especially important for conveying …
Overcoming PPE barriers to compassionate communication
“Rumor has it that the SARS-CoV 2 virus was brought into prison via inmates who were on a work-release program. Allegedly, they boarded a city bus with a driver who was ill. From there, it crept beyond the work-release camp and wafted over to the general prison population. The pandemic had …
Prison medicine during the pandemic [PODCAST]
The day after Christmas, my husband Paul developed a fever, chills, and cough. On Sunday, he tested positive. He probably got sick helping a family member, but we’ll never be certain how the virus invaded our home, rendering us hostage for weeks.
Since I wasn’t sick, I tried working from home. In between patients, I’d peek in on Paul, trying not to disturb him, piled under blankets. He groaned when changing …
Caregiving for COVID at home: a physician story
The intensive care unit nurse was worried the COVID-19 vaccine would kill her.
In the past, just minutes after getting the influenza vaccine, she had hives, wheezing, and throat swelling. Her life-threatening reaction only resolved after an epinephrine injection and monitoring in the emergency room. She vowed never to get another vaccine.
With the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, she reconsidered her stance. Now she was in my clinic, …
COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people with severe allergies
In December 2020, almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States lost 140,000 jobs, and all of them were held by women. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unrivaled and unprecedented challenges, and the damage done to gender equity in the workplace has been pervasive, and physicians and …
In July 2020, we became essential workers. We threw on our scrubs, put our stethoscopes around our necks, and walked to work for our first day as pediatricians.
Six months later, I have had a moment to reflect on what it has meant to be “essential.” I have come to realize that the simple act of learning from and taking care of our patients has been essential. “Being essential” has looked …
Being “essential” has been overwhelming
She was the brightest thing in that white room.
Warm brown eyes locked on mine. She peered out at me from behind an oxygen mask, a small woman hidden under a cloud of brown hair. Usually, when I came into the room to examine her, she was lying flat on her stomach, her chin propped up on her hands in benediction like she was reading a Bible. As soon as I …
A frontline physician’s experience with a COVID patient
Over the past year, we have experienced massive organizational change at an unprecedented pace. Traditionally, we could spend weeks planning how to best make a change in our workplaces, but COVID-19 was anything but traditional. Our emergency department at Saint Barnabas Health System in Bronx, NY, needed to pivot on a daily and even hourly basis, and to do so took planning and effort. In general, change is difficult, and …
How COVID accelerates change: Bridging business principles with emergency medicine
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It was a cold winter morning in January 2021. Another day in the ICU, another day caring for critically ill patients with complex medical conditions, another day caring for patients on their death beds, another day interacting with patients’ families and their emotions, another day of putting on a strong face for my patients, their loved ones, my ICU family and my trainees, another day of giving bad news to …
Critical care physicians have been through hell
I have written a lot about how COVID has changed me. Changed medicine. Changed America. I have written about it as a pivot point. A way to build a better medical infrastructure. I have alluded to how we can use innovation, advocacy, and listening to turn 2020 into an opportunity for change. How we can use it as a way to finally admit that health disparities exist, Black Lives Matter, …
I keep going because I miss them. And I miss me.
More and more, we physicians have “bosses,” and, as in any field, the quality of those bosses varies widely.
When the White House Coronavirus Task Force was unveiled in the spring, with the president and two of the nation’s leading infectious disease physicians, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, standing shoulder to shoulder around the podium in the White House briefing room, there was promise aplenty. Many believed that this …
Dealing with a bad boss: lessons from Dr. Fauci
Physicians in general are a pretty intelligent group of professionals. However, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that we must also know a lot about almost everything because we know a lot about one particular thing. However, given the exploding pace of advancing knowledge, that idea is hubristic. But it isn’t just science and technology where we fall short.
During the COVID pandemic, one of the things most contentious has …
Why do people keep going to church?
“Please wait. The meeting host will let you in soon.”
I am in the virtual waiting room for my weekly therapy session, the little waiting room box dragged to the side of my screen as I respond to clinical messages. I put off stretching to reply to an email, remaining in the chair I’ve been sitting in all morning hosting my own virtual visits for patients.
I hate my chair; I hate …
Why this physician misses the waiting room
Don’t let images deceive you. You may think you see everything in my picture after getting the vaccine, but you don’t. Let me take you behind the scenes of my life this past year. As I can only imagine what being behind the scenes of your life has been like for you.
What you don’t see in the picture is my yearlong of agony, tears, hard decisions, and losses, like all …
Getting the COVID vaccine: a behind the scenes look
I received my COVID vaccine on December 21st before starting an ER shift; sitting in the cold, plastic chair in a hallway-turned-vaccine-clinic, I tipped my head back to blink tears into submission as I reflected on making it this far in the pandemic without contracting COVID. Four days later, after three twelve-hour shifts, I tested positive for COVID.
The COVID vaccine did not cause my positive result; getting exposed …
COVID vaccines: side effects, myths, and madness
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