Category: Infectious disease

The mental health jeopardy of our youngest healers

I was admitted to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation and stabilization just after my third year of medical school. Leading up to my episode, I thought I was fine – stressed, sure, overworked, definitely, but I thought that was normal for som…

Should professional athletes get priority in COVID testing?

As COVID-19 continues to surge across the country, with an anticipated death toll reaching 300,000 by the end of the year, the NFL season has just kicked off. Multiple professional and college sports programs have also returned to play. To prevent outb…

Trained immunity in the fight against COVID

It is probably a very good friend right now. COVID-19 vaccine trials are underway in an unprecedented fashion.  But lately, questions about the integrity of Operation Warp Speed have started to linger.  A vaccine availability deadline prior to phase 3 …

COVID-19 reveals gaping holes in locum tenens contracts [PODCAST]

“I called the locum agency in the morning to air my concerns. To their credit, they admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event for which no one could have planned. They had developed a fund through which they could support heal…

5 ways COVID-19 threatens sports as we know it

Americans are in a sprint to return to the sports they love. Players want to play, coaches want to coach, and teams want to see fans in the stands sooner than later. But what if a return to sports (as they once were) winds up being more of a marathon t…

The failure of the U.S. government’s physicians to do good, avoid harm, and tell the truth

Medicine is a moral pursuit. Physicians inherit the tools of medicine not only through their training, but also by taking an oath to do good, avoid harm, and tell the truth. Hippocrates, the father of medical ethics, realized that the tools he possesse…

Health care should be apolitical, but it isn’t [PODCAST]

“COVID-19 is a tragedy that could have easily been prevented if our leaders cared more about the well-being of their citizens instead of economies, stock markets, and their political campaigns. To all those arguing about how the economy is more i…

What will medicine look like in a post-COVID world?

We all have understood by now that life has been changed irrevocably by COVID-19. As physicians, while we navigate the rapidly changing waters of testing, prevention, and acute treatment, we are now becoming increasingly cognizant of the long-term effe…

How do you know which doctors are essential?

This is a time of change and uncertainty in medicine. Being a resident right now during the pandemic of 2020 is even more unpredictable, especially in a field that is not necessarily directly on the frontlines, so to speak. Two years ago, I was choosin…

An patient’s ode to healers

Pages of my life turn over As the breezes of time flow over me. Remembrances of your presence As the world welcomed my first born so many years ago. Your calming voice and words of wisdom reminded me that life Would be different, but oh so much better….