Musings of a primary care triage nurse: 1. “Isolation means you aren’t around others. No, you shouldn’t be eating dinner with your family or watching TV with them.” 2. “You’ve been sick for the past week but didnR…
Category: COVID
COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies are a bridge to vaccination
Attention-grabbing headlines suggest that our crucial COVID-19 pandemic tools—monoclonal antibodies and vaccines—are incompatible. Beyond the controversy rests an evidence-based reality: monoclonal antibodies and vaccines are complementary aspects of p…
Trevor Bedford on Omicron and what about COVID keeps him up at night [PODCAST]
Welcome to an expedited episode of The Podcast by KevinMD. Trevor Bedford is a computational biologist and infectious disease scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He was selected as a recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship and can be …
A milligram of understanding for anti-vaxxers
When the COVID pandemic first reared its ugly head in 2020, I was mentally prepared (as much as any of us could be) for the patient care wave that was coming our way. What I was not prepared for was the mass of anti-science and anti-intellectual pushba…
The post-pandemic future I envisioned is here
It has been exactly one year since Pfizer’s first trucks rolled out to much fanfare. Billions followed every twist and turn on the path to getting a vaccine that would save countless lives and give us a return to normalcy. We all hoped for a bris…
Is Omicron a sheep in wolf’s clothing?
Make no mistake, the newest variant in the COVID-19 family is far more contagious than any of the others. Will it cause a drastic surge in the pandemic? Or could it have a mitigating influence? First identified in South Africa on November 11, Omicron q…
Omicron and misinformation: When will we learn from past mistakes?
Did anyone else’s heart sink when you heard about the new COVID variant? Mine sure did. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the news. I felt numb as I know we are in for a challenging period, partially because the colder months are quickly approaching and …
Viral upper respiratory infections in the age of COVID
Your toddler has had a cough and runny, stuffy nose on and off for months. They also attend daycare and have a sibling in preschool. You are worried about the symptoms. You are also exhausted because your child’s coughing and congestion is not le…
Why patients refuse the COVID-19 vaccination
The U.S. is progressively falling behind other countries when rated on the percent of the population that is vaccinated against COVID-19. I ask all my patients if they are vaccinated against COVID-19 and estimate that 80 percent are vaccinated. The unv…
Monica Gandhi, MD on why hospitalizations better measure COVID’s impact [PODCAST]
Welcome to an expedited episode of The Podcast by KevinMD. Monica Gandhi is an infectious disease physician and co-author of the New York Times opinion article, “Why Hospitalizations Are Now a Better Indicator of Covid’s Impact.” Transcript…
