I would love to say 2021 outshone 2020. But I think sometime around mid-fall of last year, we realized the joke was, sadly, on humanity, and that was not going to happen. Yes, we finally had vaccines (thank God and bless those involved forever), but th…
If you knew we are like the “Two Fridas,” that our hearts are connected, would you change your mind? Would you stop as you are about to cut the artery feeding your heart and mine? If you knew that when you cry because of your loneliness, be…
I want to scream out loud: “Wake up people, we’re circling the drain!” Does anyone notice the state of our country, the state of the world that we are living in? The world is torn apart by something we cannot even see. Millions of liv…
“It’s my right not to be vaccinated. It’s my body.” So goes the argument for the COVID anti-vaxxers, emphasizing personal freedom taking precedence over everything else. Unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, we health care provid…
When can a patient say “yes” or “no” to a recommended colonoscopy? A blood transfusion? A COVID vaccine? As 2022 opens, health officials predict a tsunami of new coronavirus cases worldwide due to the Omicron and Delta variants….
“You have to show proof that you have something wrong with you in order for you to get the medicine. I put forth, and I maintain that if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that.” – Dr. Susan Moore. In a 7-minute-and-22-second …
Before there was doom-scrolling, there were sad books. For me, it was Chapter 18 in Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. The chapter is a fictional portrayal of Mr. Grossman imagining his mother’s last words. The protagonist—modeled on the author—an…
Since the first cases of COVID-19 started trickling into the U.S. in January 2020 (or December, depending on what sources you believe), leaders have made confident statements promising containment, to eradicate the virus, to provide resources for hospi…
It’s no secret that rural hospitals have been struggling. According to online data from the University of North Carolina, 137 rural hospitals have closed in the U.S. since 2010. In Appalachia, the rural hospital where I work, which is staffed by …
Almost two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have confronted the illness and loss of millions of lives and the sad and dangerous reality of having a health care system and a society full of moral gaps, inequities, and disparities. …
