Category: Infectious disease

A message to administrators from physicians: Lead, follow, or get out of the way

We represent the front lines in this ongoing crisis, and we are disheartened by not only the lack of support but overwhelming greed from just about all of you. We have kept our mouths shut and practiced medicine, providing excellent patient care, while…

What’s going to happen? What’s going on? I wish someone could tell me. 

The waiting room is empty, and I take signout on five patients. The patients that typically line the hallways waiting for beds, for stress tests, for MRIs all stayed home. The familiar drunks still get their blister-packed turkey sandwiches. There’s a …

Help our health care heroes take care of you

The goal of “flattening the curve” regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic is to slow transmission such that we avoid seeing a large unmanageable peak of infections at once. It doesn’t necessarily mean that fewer people will be infected from start to …

Thoughts from the COVID-19 front lines

I am an internal medicine physician directly taking care of patients admitted to the hospital who are COVID-19 positive or those who are being tested for COVID-19. Last week, my hospital created a special team dedicated to taking care of these patients…

Your only option is to stay home

This is the first time in modern history that humanity is facing a common adversary. As much as Uncle Harry might want to blame the Chinese for this misgiving, it will not change our predicament. The fact is that this time around, our enemy is stealthy…

A pathway for the inevitable and imminent need to unite the world

Pestilence has fallen upon modern society. For thousands of years of written history, humanity fights and inevitably wins battles against infectious diseases. Although the war against pathogens shall likely continue for as long as humanity exists, our …

5 things that should change in medicine after COVID-19

As I sit here nervously reading the news and awaiting my next shift at the hospital tonight, I cannot help but wonder what the world will look like when the coronavirus pandemic passes. While I cannot predict when this will be, or how much more damage …

Doctor’s Day 2020 will be unlike any other

Doctor’s Day is March 30, 2020.  Usually, it is celebrated simply.  Recently, it means if you work for a health care organization, they may give you a gift, or they may have a special meal in the lounge.  Personally, I am grateful for that recognition….

Protect your health care workers. Protect your front line.

As schools, public transport, gyms, restaurants, libraries, playgrounds shut down, and life comes to a standstill, people stay at home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Healthcare workers, however, do the reverse. They get ready every mor…

The cacophony of the COVID-19 crisis

ICE is requesting bids for 45,000 N95 masks Why is ICE soliciting for masks when our frontline health care workers need them? There is no social distancing during detention and deportation, and what ICE is doing puts the public at risk. We should immed…