Category: Infectious disease

COVID-19 and the use of outpatient steroids

In some people, COVID-19 causes mild or no symptoms at all. In others, it can cause significant respiratory distress that can lead to death. Once infected with COVID-19, is there anything that someone can do to foster a less severe infection?  The answ…

Science challenges dogma and upends previously held beliefs in its quest for truth

Like most modern marriages with spouses in the same profession, ours is one based on an exquisite balance of willful one-upmanship and reluctant admiration. A pandemic with two physicians in critical care medicine, albeit in different disciplines, serv…

Dear doctor: Please be gentle on yourself. Our recovery is still ahead.

For you, the story is quite different. Away from the anxieties of the news, you were there, in the front row. You saw it all. You heard about it in January, and somehow it was impossible to fathom the horror that was to come. You agonized about the mis…

Surgical smoke evacuators and inertia in the time of COVID [PODCAST]

“Early in the pandemic, in thinking of and discussing possible solutions to help protect health care workers, two of my former colleagues and I recalled a device called the Surgical Smoke Evacuator (SSE), which we used extensively since the 1990s…

Harness the power of social media to reach COVID immunity: #CovidVaccine

The roll-out of the COVID vaccine, which started in the U.S. recently, brought hope to millions of Americans reeling under the protracted coronavirus pandemic. The phrase “this is the beginning of the end” was used repeatedly by interviewed…

COVID vaccine resistance in underrepresented communities

Despite advances in the science of diabetes, including a huge armory of new drugs, over 34.2 million people still suffer. More than 88 million adults are at risk for diabetes, disproportionately affecting Black and brown communities. Individuals with d…

The 12 days of COVID

On the first day of COVID my hospital administrator gave to me, A pep talk and some shoddy PPE. On the second day of COVID my hospital administrator gave to me, Two nitrile gloves, And a pep talk and some shoddy PPE. On the third day of COVID my hospit…

I am a physician who tested positive for COVID-19. My main symptom is anger.

As cases exploded across the country, I watched with horror as I saw people go on with their daily lives as if hundreds of thousands of people were not dying, as if millions were not infected, as if our health care system was not collapsing. I watched …

The COVID vaccine selfie: The caption matters as much as the picture

COVID-19 has forever changed science. There have been many positives. The virus has forced us to question long-held notions in immunology, virology, and critical care, improving our ability to battle disease. There have been brilliant expressions of cr…

6 things people should know about the COVID-19 vaccines

Two COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) have received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA so far, and many health care workers and first responders are already receiving the vaccine. As the general public waits their turn, there are many …