One year ago today, my hospital system admitted its first patient with COVID-19. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been twelve months. It simultaneously feels immensely long ago and like it was only yesterday; that what I know of medic…
Category: Conditions
Hypertension is killing pregnant mothers. Blood pressure monitoring can help.
Hypertensive disorders with onset during pregnancies are among the leading causes of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity in the U.S. and can have far-reaching consequences for the long-term health of the mother and child. In Dr. Jerome Adams’ r…
Could a glass of wine diagnose long COVID?
Acute COVID-19 infection ranges from no symptoms (asymptomatic) to life-threatening. What about long COVID (the symptoms occurring more than three weeks after infection, also known as post-acute COVID syndrome)? Could there be thousands of people wit…
I remain hopeful: a personal reflection of the pandemic
I did not lose a loved one. I did not lose a friend. Yet, COVID has forever changed me in ways that I cannot even begin to rationalize. I feel old — my body, my soul, my heart. It has been one year since I have hugged my parents. It has been one year s…
Influenza: a deadly risk in schools before COVID
The Washington Post published an interesting article in its weekly health section on March 2. 2021. The article had an impactful graphic using data from the Centers for Disease Control that showed the number of pediatric deaths due to influenza over th…
When is it ethical to stop a vaccination program?
There is fear in the air. Fear that the COVID pandemic may not get under control because the virus is mutating so fast. Fear that the vaccines may not be effective against these new variants. But fear should not be the driving force behind public healt…
The pandemic plight of CHF: one center’s response
We swore an oath: “Primum non nocere” — First, do no harm. When pandemic stress began to bear down on our hospitals, we scrambled to manage the burden of volume and simultaneously mitigate the threat of contagion. In our war effort…
A perspective on herd immunity for COVID-19
On February 18, Dr. Marty Makary published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal which struck an unusually optimistic note as to the stage of the American COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Makary predicts that based on the current trajectory, COVID-19 will…
Pediatric patients need appropriate pain management after surgery
Fear of opioid addiction and misuse has been instilled into the American public – in many cases rightfully so. However, we are concerned that new guidelines for opioid prescribing in children and adolescents after surgery recently published in JAMA Sur…
Let 2021 be the year we end the pandemic
I listen to the wind howling outside on this night that’s stranded between the departing season of winter and the coming of spring. I await the arrival of longer days filled with sunshine, days that welcome new growth, new life. During the year t…
