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 …
Category: Conditions
A previously healthy clinician, now critically ill with COVID-19
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…
I’m an infectious disease doctor and I’m in quarantine
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…
COVID-19: Don’t listen to the political spin of either side
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 …
This patient is more than just a street person
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…
A doctor’s coronavirus straight talk
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…
Learn about Guillain-Barré syndrome with a Medcomic rap
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 …
COVID-19: Why I’m very concerned
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…
Should you panic about coronavirus?
Susan Desmond-Hellmann has a unique set of experiences. Until February, she was the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where part of her job was thinking up new ways to battle infectious disease. Before that, she was the chancellor of the …
How big will the coronavirus pandemic be? An epidemiologist answers.
The Harvard historian Jill Lepore recounted recently in The New Yorker magazine that when democracies sink into crisis, the question “where are we going?” leaps to everyone’s mind, as if we were waiting for a weather forecast to tell us how healthy our…
