“Despite forces not within our control, namely the thoughts and actions of others, headway has been made in my local practice area: the decline in mortality, the advances in clinical knowledge about the pathophysiology, more efficient testing, m…
Category: Infectious disease
Cartoons that explain how the COVID vaccines work
Emily Waters is a physician who shares how the mRNA COVID vaccines — known as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — work (click to enlarge): The other option, the single-dose vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson, is explained here (click to…
End the draconian hospital visitation policies during COVID-19 [PODCAST]
“At the start of the pandemic when hospitals were overrun, testing and PPE were scarce, and unknowns about COVID-19 transmission abound, such restrictions were reasonable, perhaps even essential. But we have made progress since then; most hospita…
My Shot! A COVID vaccine adaptation
Vax’n 8, a group of physicians from Northern California working in a variety of specialties in medicine, are proud to present “My Shot!”, a song adapted from the hit Broadway show Hamilton. “My Shot” addresses the social, scientific, and political issu…
COVID is a race with no finish
As a devoted runner, I find life lessons from this movement that help me get through difficult times. Journey with me for a moment. We have signed up for a distance running race. For some of us, this is familiar territory. For others who consider payin…
An anniversary: Reflecting on COVID-19 and combustion
One year ago today, my hospital system admitted its first patient with COVID-19. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been twelve months. It simultaneously feels immensely long ago and like it was only yesterday; that what I know of medic…
What this physician says to vaccine-doubters [PODCAST]
“A scientific achievement can never have success on its own unless if it has acceptance in the social context by the masses. I think that the concerns brought forward by the vaccine-doubters cannot be dismissed as ignorance, and it is hard to con…
Could a glass of wine diagnose long COVID?
Acute COVID-19 infection ranges from no symptoms (asymptomatic) to life-threatening. What about long COVID (the symptoms occurring more than three weeks after infection, also known as post-acute COVID syndrome)? Could there be thousands of people wit…
Loved ones are hospitalized and alone during COVID
This has been a very difficult year. COVID-19 has rampaged the country, worked hospitals to their breaking point, torn families apart, and kept families apart. The grief seems never-ending. At the beginning of 2020, we watched in horror at the destruct…
I remain hopeful: a personal reflection of the pandemic
I did not lose a loved one. I did not lose a friend. Yet, COVID has forever changed me in ways that I cannot even begin to rationalize. I feel old — my body, my soul, my heart. It has been one year since I have hugged my parents. It has been one year s…
