“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 …
Category: COVID
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…
I can’t make you care. But you should.
In 2017, I read an article called “I Don’t Know How to Explain to You that You Should Care About Other People.” I don’t remember the details of the article; the name was enough. As we enter our third year of a global pandemic, I think about that often….
Covaxin: Doomed to the dugout or ready to join the field of vaccine options?
With apologies to the late Yankees slugger Yogi Berra, for pandemic-weary Americans, it’s like “déjà vu all over again,” as new lockdowns and mandatory mask mandates are being imposed across the globe. The latest threat, the Omicron C…
When a pandemic of inaction by medical boards fails to protect patients
You’d think by now – at the “experienced” age of 40, a practicing OB/GYN almost two years into a pandemic – that I’d know better than to trust broad proclamations from professional organizations and instead resign myself to the …
Clearing the air our kids share: a prescription for healthy schools [PODCAST]
“Six air changes per hour and HEPA grade filtration of indoor air for our children is an investment in their futures for long beyond when the COVID-19 pandemic fades from view. We know there is poor indoor air quality in multiple schools, from in…
Unless we get back to the basics, there will be no end to the pandemic
Frankly, I am tired of this pandemic. I am tired of the death. I am tired of the destruction of families and the obliteration of vulnerable individuals’ social supports. I am tired of human issues being politicized and used as weapons to divide u…
