“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…
Category: Infectious disease
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…
Influenza: a deadly risk in schools before COVID
The Washington Post published an interesting article in its weekly health section on March 2. 2021. The article had an impactful graphic using data from the Centers for Disease Control that showed the number of pediatric deaths due to influenza over th…
When is it ethical to stop a vaccination program?
There is fear in the air. Fear that the COVID pandemic may not get under control because the virus is mutating so fast. Fear that the vaccines may not be effective against these new variants. But fear should not be the driving force behind public healt…
