Category: Infectious disease

A medical student’s 100 days of COVID

March 11, 2020. The medical school officially made all classes remote until the end of the semester. Tom Hanks and his wife have coronavirus. The NBA is suspended; Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert has corona. Travel to Europe is suspended. The renal midter…

A coronavirus confession

I am elderly now, and as a lad, I was raised a Roman Catholic.  That often involved going to confession. I wondered if confession was still done, part of the faith.  You can see how out of touch I am.  I am here to report confession is alive and flouri…

Now is not the time for medical students to be spectators [PODCAST]

“It is time to stop being spectators. We are at a critical turning point in our fight against this disease, and our actions now will determine whether we stay on the sidelines, or put an effective end to the scourge of the disease.  If we want to…

Residency recruitment in the era of COVID-19: Why it’s more important than ever for programs to have an online persona

More than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic and with social distancing measures in full swing, virtually every facet of life in America has been affected, with medical education being no exception. Medical students have been forced to reschedule US…

The world needs more infectious disease doctors

My face shield whistled with noise as it brushed against my thin yellow gown. Bright monitors surrounded me, chirping like cardinals in the summer. A slow exhale felt comfortably warm against my N-95 mask. Treading down the river of COVID-19 patients a…

The path to a healthy nation starts with the you, the voter

It is hard to envision that this is an election year. With a paucity of campaign ads and the presidential nominees locked up for quite a while, I didn’t even know that the Democratic convention was going on until I saw a report about it after the…

To better take care of patients, we need to take care of ourselves

We all know by now that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world altogether. There is no question that stressors in our lives are more than ever before. This year’s Fall will be the most dangerous of Falls. So what does it mean for the physici…

Is the FDA too slow to handle the pandemic?

The FDA plays a critical role in our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It helps decide which medicines are safe and effective to treat the disease. It evaluates the accuracy and reliability of laboratory tests. And it will play a central role…

How a professional lacrosse league created a COVID-free tournament

In 2019, the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) entered the world’s stage, taking with it more than 100 of the greatest pro lacrosse players in the world from the Major League Lacrosse. The new league launched a tour-based model, offered higher player compe…

Masks are an effigy of American technocratic incompetence

Seven weeks before President Trump declared COVID-19 a federal emergency heralding the economic lockdown, Jesse’s customers began cutting their orders. Jesse sells garments and cotton, imported predominantly from India, to wholesalers and retaile…