Category: Infectious disease

My one case of COVID impacted dozens of lives [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “If any of those people get infected, their illness will potentially impact dozens more. COVID infection may now be ‘just a cold,’ at least for the vaccinated. But no one …

Why psychological explanations for long COVID are dangerous [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and their allies will rally in DC, London, and Edinburgh this September to “demand bold, urgent governmental action” for the millions of …

Coronavirus and the duty to treat

For the first time since graduation from medical school, stirred by the courage of my colleagues in the ICUs and emergency rooms during the COVID pandemic, I looked back at the Hippocratic oath to reassess its charge to physicians. My wife and I, both …

Pediatrician and pharmacist agree: Children should be vaccinated against COVID-19

With COVID-19 vaccines now widely available for children six months and older, we join pediatricians and pharmacists across the country and urge parents to vaccinate their young children against COVID-19 as soon as possible. Schools are open and more a…

My PPD was a stumble, but am I really past the trauma?

The sound of beeping monitors of ICU, the blood pressure cuff going off on a patient after having detected an unsatisfactory read undisplayable on the screen, hearing a child cry while walking past ED rooms. These sounds, not alien to the ears of a phy…

Where are we going with monkeypox?

Monkeypox has been in the news since May 2022. Barely recovering from the anxieties of COVID-19, the natural question in our mind is how is this all going to play out? We might not have accurate predictions yet, but almost six months into the outbreak,…

Are antibiotics too much of a good thing?

Since the development of antibiotics in the 1940s, patients presenting with an infection could be expected to respond quickly to a prescribed course of antibiotics by their physician. While the antibiotic prescription model has helped countless lives, …

Why psychological explanations for long COVID are dangerous

Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and their allies will rally in DC, London, and Edinburgh this September to “demand bold, urgent governmental action” for the millions of people living with ME, long COVID, and other infection-ass…

The impact of a single COVID infection

This piece started out focusing on the impact of colds on our lives, particularly if COVID is now “just a cold.” But now it’s personal. My husband and I escaped COVID until now by being very careful until we got vaccinated. Once vacci…

Do we need to temper our expectations of Paxlovid?

The twice-vaxxed, twice-boosted First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, tested negative for COVID after taking Paxlovid. And then she rebounded, just like her husband did weeks ago or like Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAI…