I have been answering a bunch of questions about this virus. There is a lot of confusion, and there are a few questions that I seem to hear over and over. So, here is a simple primer. 1. Why is personal distance of 6 feet a thing? The measles virus can…
We are in an unprecedented time. With the amount of information available, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Sometimes the information we consume is confusing. For example, at a March 16th press briefing, President Donald Trump addressed the public about…
Here in the U.S., we slip and slide around the reality of rationing. We like to believe we can have it all, do it all, that there are no bounds. And if you have money in the U.S., that is more or less true. Until now. Personal protective equipment and …
As a hospitalist in Minnesota, my colleagues and I are busy preparing for the coming viral storm. It is starting to rain. We read the harrowing front line stories from overwhelmed hospitals in China, Italy, and now here in the U.S., and reach for a sub…
There’s an intruder in our relationship, and her name is COVID. Every night I come home, and she’s lurking around the corner on an Amazon box, in the crevice of my couch perhaps, or her scent is lingering on my husband’s scrubs. A physician-physician…
There’s a saying in medicine that: “If you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” It’s our way of acknowledging that we all suffer from a particular set of blinders unique to our own specialties. Usually, our …
As medical trainees, we will shape the rapidly changing health care environment in this country. We are fiercely advocating for our disadvantaged patients, debating the price of life-saving medications, and carefully considering how the upcoming electi…
I looked at the door. Standing there, in a paper gown, my hair tucked back into a ponytail, mask, and shield across my face, gloves on, boot covers over my shoes and legs. Behind that door was a woman I had known for years, whose youngest I had deliv…
We are in crisis. Hospitals have become, in addition to repositories for the pandemic, infectious with moral illness. From an emergency medical physician: I have been told not to wear a mask in every room, only in rooms of people with infectious sympto…
We are in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s already very clear that the infection prevention community in the U.S. has never faced such an enormous challenge. Reflecting back on the past two weeks, we have learned many things th…
