Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “What is currently known is that monkeypox is transmitted primarily through close contact with skin lesions, bodily fluids, and respiratory droplets. Men aged between 20 and 50 years,…
Category: Infectious disease
Monkeypox and the prolonged COVID pandemic could seal the fate of the health care system
I understand it’s been over two years since the World Health Organization announced the coronavirus pandemic, and we are tired. I speak for the thousands of health care workers and frontline workers: We are exhausted, we feel taken for granted, a…
Teen dies when blood culture protocol botched: What can we learn from this tragedy?
It’s 4 a.m. when a 17-year-old awakens at home with severe left shoulder pain that his worried parents call 911. By the time he reaches the emergency room (ER), he has pain all the way to his wrist. “Any recent injuries?” asks the doc…
Monkeypox: Have we learned anything?
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…
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…
