Ask any physician how they are doing today, and you’ll probably hear some version of frustrated, tired, and sad. It’s not the lump-in-your-throat type sadness. It’s that my-mind-and-soul-are-tired sadness. The feeling you have when al…
Category: Infectious disease
A perspective on comorbidities and severity of illness in children with COVID-19
“Children don’t get as sick with COVID-19” and “only children with comorbidities get very sick from COVID-19” are two statements that have concerned me during the pandemic. They have been used as statements to support loosening COVID-19 prevention mea…
If I already had COVID, do I need the vaccine?
I used to think, “I had COVID. I don’t need a vaccine… not for now at least, and maybe not ever.” November 2020: I was a few hours into my 12-hour shift in the emergency department. I had been treating COVID at every shift for about 1…
The COVID killing fields
I go to the hospital cafeteria to unwind from this night — another unpredictable one with irrational patients that randomly attempt to assault the staff. This time, they missed. Behavioral health. Land of the psychotics and schizophrenics. But an incre…
We hold the power to safeguard our children: an physician’s plea
As a primary care physician on the front line, I have witnessed tremendous disability and death due to COVID. I have grieved with mourning family members and spouses – watching their lives be uprooted due to a preventable infection. I have counseled wo…
Afghanistan, the Delta variant, and the limits of American short-term solutions
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to uphold its current Communist government. Opposed to the foreign invasion of their country, many rebel groups, collectively known as the Mujahideen, rose up in arms to fight the Soviets. Since it was the …
The vaccine is not the enemy. COVID is.
I’m confused and disillusioned. When we were in the throes of the COVID pandemic at the beginning of this year, the talk revolved around when life-saving vaccines would become available for the general public. Thankfully, beginning during the fir…
Carry on, my weary one: Persevering in the aftermath
Back in January of this year, I was rotating through the thoracic surgery service while COVID-19 surged like a tsunami through our nation. The restricted unit of COVID patients hid behind closed double doors, posters plastered on the walls outside with…
Telemedicine in Nepal during COVID-19 [PODCAST]
“Currently working in a COVID ICU in a tertiary center in Kathmandu, I have experienced how difficult it is for the health system to manage the patient load. A month ago, ICU beds were fully occupied, ventilator alarms would set off time and agai…
The fifth column brings a fifth wave
U.S. COVID deaths have surpassed U.S. war deaths from World War II, Vietnam, and Korea. The unvaccinated are a fifth column that has ushered in a wave of nasty COVID variant infections in the United States, with their attendant deaths, costs, and disru…
