The current COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the availability and the results of medical diagnostic tests. As a physician, I treat the results of lab tests like I treat movie recommendations from a friend – I am always skeptical. For the movies, I n…
Trusted clinician commentary on COVID-19 coronavirus from the KevinMD community. Continuously updated. The idiot’s guide to coronavirus from an emergency physician COVID-19: Why I’m very concerned I’m an infectious disease doctor and I’m in quarantine …
Does care fall short or go higher when the patient is one of our own? It depends on who you ask: We, the medical team, believe we try hard for everyone, but go the extra mile when it’s one of our own. Perhaps to family/outsiders, we’re not …
A New Jersey physician assistant who was the state’s first COVID-19 patient is speaking out from his hospital bed, calling his illness “severe” and raising concerns about his treatment. James Cai, a 32-year-old non-smoker with no othe…
Last week, I saw a patient who may have contracted COVID-19. The patient had come into the emergency department overnight due to respiratory distress and overseas travel history. While his clinical picture and history were cause for concern, due to lim…
The U.S. response to coronavirus reminds me of recent disasters when official facts were at odds with the reality I encountered. Governments have a long history of lying to their people about the risks of illness, either as a way to minimize political …
When I first landed this job as a case manager (social worker), I was given Robert R. as a client. He was at his worst then, soiling himself virtually every day, with no change of clothing available. I remember him wearing a piece of colored cloth arou…
I have been getting lots of requests for my opinion about where we are and what is coming. The first question is: How bad will the coronavirus epidemic be in the U.S.? The short answer is, we don’t know – but it could be pretty nasty. An im…
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy in which the body’s immune system attacks peripheral nerves. Clinical and epidemiological evidence seems to indicate that most cases are preceded by an infection …
While it’s well known that China and Iran have under-reported their COVID-19 statistics, Italy has been fully transparent. What we are learning is very concerning. The Lombardy province alone has experienced a surge in deaths due to the coronavirus— fr…
