“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 …
Category: COVID
The letter this physician wants to write to her patients
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…
A booster shot of humility
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…
Did the unvaccinated just save my rural hospital?
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 …
COVID-19 vaccination: the Latinx experience
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. …
How to end the misinformation pandemic [PODCAST]
“The way to do this is by recognizing the power of words. I don’t mean fervently declaring one’s position and arguing why those who disagree are wrong. There has been way too much of this, and health professionals are no exception. Rather what’s …
COVID-19 and the Tuskegee syphilis study
Despite health professionals’ efforts at conveying the effectiveness of immunization, many African Americans remain skeptical about the COVID-19 vaccine. Getting to the root of this distrust is critical as the Delta and Omicron variants stoke up …
We have been forced into a mass casualty scenario
I spent the past year and a half of this pandemic getting a degree in quality, safety, and leadership. Though there were days, nights, and weeks where I simply did not know how I could finish the work or go on, I never realized how much I needed the wo…
What this primary care physician learned from her COVID-19 infection
March 2020. Administrators informed us that primary care physicians would be deployed to the “front lines” – either the emergency department or the COVID-19 wards. When I shared my news with my 21-year-old daughter, she cried and hugged me and said, “I…
Anger toward the unvaccinated will only cause more harm [PODCAST]
“The unvaccinated patient is the addicted person, the overweight patient, the smoker in the waiting room. Our antipathy toward them endangers their health, maybe their lives. The unvaccinated will not be convinced with stigma. They will be convin…
