Perhaps I am being pessimistic, with a “glass half full attitude,” but please hear me out. I am optimistic, but I am also realistic, and I pay attention to trends and behaviors in people. When monkeypox was first mentioned in the Canadian m…
Category: Infectious disease
Get ready for a COVID culture shock
A friend called me for medical advice two weeks ago. He’s single, in his 30s and generally healthy, but he’d developed a dry cough with mild congestion. After a self-administered COVID-19 test turned up negative results, he remained suspici…
My experience as a teenage health care worker during the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]
“We owe it to our patients to do better. Every time I picture the couple leaving the pharmacy unvaccinated, I am reminded that true health care requires accountability and a willingness to challenge the status quo. That means challenging a “no” o…
Chronicles of my COVID isolation
Day 1. I spent Thursday, my day off, golfing. Friday, I was scheduled to see patients and do surgery on the non-English-speaking mother of a patient I delivered a long time ago (who I didn’t really remember). She remembered me, though, and brough…
How to help rewrite the COVID-19 information playbook
Facts combat fear It’s hard to believe the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the U.S. only a year and a half ago. Like many others, I welcomed the COVID-19 vaccine as a triumph of global cooperation that leveraged decades of research and…
3 decades in medicine: new name(s), same me
Many women change their last names after marriage, after a divorce, or just because. During my 30-year career in medicine, I have had three last names. Yes, not a typo, three! I got married for the first time during my internal medicine residency. I di…
Distrust in science is a cancer to public safety
When a congressional candidate was recently cheered on after demanding the execution of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, it was another reminder that civil discourse and trust in science are continuing to dwindle. A controversial household name in the sciences, D…
What you need to know about monkeypox
Recently, several European countries have reported outbreaks of monkeypox following the first case (index case) reported in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2022, linked to a traveler from Nigeria. Monkeypox belongs to a family of other pox-like viruses an…
Doctors as organizational stewards
COVID-19 melted down the world at a very inopportune time in history. Just as medicine was getting a handle on previously intractable conditions, from sophisticated diabetes management to less invasive surgical procedures, a new threat that devastates …
Combatting antimicrobial resistance during COVID: What clinicians need to know
While the world has spent the last two years laser-focused on the COVID pandemic, another public health threat is still lurking in the shadows: the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognized since the earl…
