Category: Infectious disease

How COVID-19 invaded my house and my family

I am an ER doctor, and my husband is a pediatrician. This story starts two weeks ago when COVID-19 was first changing all our lives. I am a travel doctor and was returning home. I saw a few patients that I was sure had COVID-19 (later confirmed). Fortu…

How dare you, America

I grew up with one guiding principle.  One religion.  One stone temple that I bowed to faithfully.  I kneeled at the glorious shrine of medicine.  It was the only thing I ever wanted to do with my life. My education was vigorous.  I stayed at home and …

COVID-19 and America’s true colors

During times of stress, true colors show. The United States is a global leader and literally a dream for millions around the world. During the pandemic pandemonium, we should want to be proud to be American. What does that mean right now, though? After…

COVID-19: What can we learn from history?

I was quite young, but I could sense the unease in my mother when she first sent me off to elementary school amidst an uncertain risk of paralytic polio in the 1950’s era. She maintained her frightened countenance until 1960 when the Sabin vaccine mira…

COVID-19: What can we learn from history?

I was quite young, but I could sense the unease in my mother when she first sent me off to elementary school amidst an uncertain risk of paralytic polio in the 1950’s era. She maintained her frightened countenance until 1960 when the Sabin vaccine mira…

From physician to provider to health care worker: Names matter, even in a pandemic

I have been reading, thinking and consulting for a while about the occupational health syndrome commonly referred to as burnout. As initially defined back in the 1970s, burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by one’s professi…

Undergoing an appendectomy in a pandemic

The world is paused. But is it? Just because the world is experiencing a pandemic does not mean that the rest of the world’s ailments all of a sudden go away.  Their priority may fall in ranking, but they persist. Health and disease continue. I ate lun…

Undergoing an appendectomy in a pandemic

The world is paused. But is it? Just because the world is experiencing a pandemic does not mean that the rest of the world’s ailments all of a sudden go away.  Their priority may fall in ranking, but they persist. Health and disease continue. I ate lun…

The gift COVID gave me

COVID-19 has given us many things, some of which we expected. Scarce resources, anxiety about keeping ourselves and our families safe, a sense of unparalleled vulnerability, and a solid helping of helplessness, knowing ultimately we may not be able to …

A physician’s predictions about COVID-19

It has been a month since the first case of SARS-CoV-2 presented in my hospital in South Jersey. The virus has been causing devastation around the globe since December 2019, and before the United States – China, Italy, and Spain suffered the greatest c…