COVID-19 has raised many ethical challenges for health care providers, including the level of risk they must take when providing patient care. Early in the pandemic, the ability to mitigate these risks was relatively limited, especially when caring for…
My day started out great; my dad called to let me know he had received the first dose of the vaccine. I let out a whoop of joy! One cannot imagine the sense of relief that passed over me. As a physician and an advocate for the vaccine, it has been a st…
I just tested positive for COVID-19. I was vaccinated earlier this year. I am scared. I am confident I will get through this. I received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine earlier this year, and I just tested positive for COVID-19. It’s almost comical tha…
“It’s experimental.” “It alters your DNA.” “It may cause long-term problems.” “It’s too new, too rushed. I want more time.” I hear this nonsense from patients all day. None are docs, virologists, microbiologists, immunologists, public health officials,…
“It’s experimental.” “It alters your DNA.” “It may cause long-term problems.” “It’s too new, too rushed. I want more time.” I hear this nonsense from patients all day. None are docs, virologists, microbiologists, immunologists, public health officials,…
As surges of the Delta variant alarm officials and citizens in this country and around the world, while the cases of COVID-19 have reached more than 200 million worldwide, a less visible threat re-emerges. If health care professionals are not allowed t…
I know there’s a lot of information out there about the COVID-19 vaccine. You have probably read many different things about the vaccine from friends and family members, in the news, and social media. There is so much conflicting information that…
I am no longer terrified of COVID. I’ve seen its death. I’ve seen it take the breath from someone’s lungs. I’ve watched it shut down kidneys. I’ve walked the halls of an ICU with pumps outside the room, and patients turned upside down. I’ve heard the c…
Last week, someone referred to me online in the most shocking terms: a liberal. As I read the phrase, I gripped the pearls around my neck and coughed down my scalding afternoon tea. How could this have happened to me? With all its newsworthiness to the…
If you are confused about delta and how well the vaccines protect against infection right now, I don’t blame you: We are learning and updating data in real-time, and it is hard to keep track of it all. So maybe this analogy will help. Think of th…
