Last weekend, my partner witnessed some of the pandemic’s collateral damage in an upsurge of violent deaths via car wrecks and shootings. A patient of mine, chief of the local SWAT team, had predicted as much: he gave people two weeks at home before th…
I was in medical school when the world saw the news of the Zika and Ebola viruses, but never have I seen mass hysteria to this level for COVID-19. No longer is coronavirus what is depicted in a copy of First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, where it says coro…
We are living in unprecedented times that will be pivotal for our beloved profession. In the Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the period of time in which the story was set was pivotal in the evolution of society and politics. Our current times ma…
This document is meant for information purposes. Please review the CDC guidelines for N95 mask contingency planning. FDA-approved methods On March 29, 2020, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for a proprietary hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) s…
I am an ER physician in Jacksonville, FL. Yesterday, I learned that a top health official in New Zealand was reprimanded for taking his family to the beach. He did this after orders had been given to stay home, and strict social distancing had been man…
We are in the midst of an unequaled juncture in history, one in which we find ourselves primarily armed with the ability to distance ourselves physically from one another. In the United States, we have observed on multiple occasions over the past sever…
In late March, on what is known as Match Day, graduating medical students like myself found out where we would continue training as residents. This has always been an exciting but stressful time. This year it is more than that. On top of the countless …
I’m pretty sure we are herding cats. No, I don’t mean the American public, though, to be honest, it could definitely apply right now. What I’m talking about is the medical community at large. The pandemic exposed major gaps in the American healthcare s…
We know that the past two months haven’t been easy. We know about the sleepless nights, anger, tears, depression, and anxiety. We know all of this because we know what trauma does to a person, and you are in the middle of experiencing a repeated trauma…
In March, I began receiving photographs on my social media apps of my daughter’s Match Day celebration seven years ago at Tulane Medical School. It was a glorious day, in particular, because my daughter got her first choice: Not only would she be an in…
