Health

A view from Canada: Defending vaccine passports

The Quebec government recently announced plans for a vaccine passport system, which, in the event of a fourth wave of COVID-19, will bar people who are not fully vaccinated from entering indoor settings such as bars, restaurants, gyms, and entertainment events.  Quebec is an outlier here: Apart from Manitoba — which issues “immunization cards” to Read more… A view from Canada: Defending vaccine passports originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Policy, Canada, Infectious Disease, Quebec, Manitoba, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Family principles of COVID-19 heroes

As we sat at home watching our physician colleagues on the news draped with masks and PPE calmly explaining their dire situations last year, one cannot help but wonder what kind of environment and community cultivated these heroes. Were their commonalities in how we physicians were all raised that led us on the same path? Read more… Family principles of COVID-19 heroes originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Medical School, Primary Care, Physician, COVID-19 Coronavirus

The local and global concerns of COVID-19

The world is ill-prepared to respond to threatening public health emergencies. What is most disturbing is how our global leaders continue to lack the moral and scientific premises of health equity. At the beginning of 2020, the novel coronavirus rampaged across the globe, with many officials referring to it as the great equalizer. However, referring Read more… The local and global concerns of COVID-19 originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Policy, Infectious Disease, COVID-19 Coronavirus

The moral destruction of ICU nurses

Maybe we can take a deep breath — and breathe out slowly. Perhaps we can check our pulse. Go on that vacation far away or visit a beach and watch the crashing waves. Listen to the seagulls, the breeze, the blue skies. And turn our cell phones off. But as an ICU nurse who loved Read more… The moral destruction of ICU nurses originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Please join me and respectfully fight COVID misinformation

Another COVID outbreak appears to be transpiring. As America celebrated significant milestones with vaccination efforts, many people were still spurred by misinformation, lack of evidence, and education. The COVID-19 vaccine naysayers are in all walks of society, from the uneducated to health care professionals. I think it’s fair to say that our civil liberties and Read more… Please join me and respectfully fight COVID misinformation originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, America, Infectious Disease, Physician, COVID-19 Coronavirus

CDC updates indoor mask guidance

Due to emerging science about transmission in vaccinated people, the CDC now recommends all teachers and students wear masks in school, and that people living in COVID-19 hotspots, or areas of the country with large outbreaks, wear masks indoors, CDC officials said on Tuesday. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, attributed this updated guidance to new science Read more… CDC updates indoor mask guidance originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Cdc, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Rochelle Walensky MD

Major medical groups back mandatory COVID vaccine for health care workers

Medical groups’ calls for COVID-19 vaccination mandates for health care workers reached a fever pitch on Monday, with the American Medical Association (AMA), American Nurses Association, and 55 other organizations joining the chorus supporting mandatory vaccination. “It is critical that all people in the health care workforce get vaccinated against COVID-19 for the safety of Read more… Major medical groups back mandatory COVID vaccine for health care workers originally appeared in KevinMD.com. ...
Tags: Health, Policy, Infectious Disease, COVID, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Health care workers betrayed: Mask mandates were lifted too early

A year ago, I started writing.  I wrote to process what I had seen and done and to prepare for what I knew was to come.  It was inevitable.  Humans would return to their normal activities, and despite mine and so many others’ advice, would do so without utilizing mitigating behaviors or respect for others.  Read more… Health care workers betrayed: Mask mandates were lifted too early originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A new vaccine emoji to get more COVID-19 shots into arms

A public health expert and a web developer have created a new digital communication tool to get more COVID-19 shots into arms — a vaccine emoji. Social media users have been using the syringe, microbe, or mask emoji in their posts to talk about the pandemic. The new vaccine emoji, however, will display a flexing Read more… A new vaccine emoji to get more COVID-19 shots into arms originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Education is the key to moving past the pandemic

Our country is seventeen months into a pandemic that we have an effective vaccine for, and yet, COVID-19 cases are still rising at an alarming rate.  Currently, this dramatic acceleration in cases is evident in several states. Furthermore, these areas with high numbers of COVID-19 case rates are associated with low vaccination rates. These unfortunate Read more… Education is the key to moving past the pandemic originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Psychiatrists can be valuable vaccine educators

When watching the news or reading articles about COVID-19, the physicians who contribute are often in internal medicine, epidemiology, emergency medicine, etc. You do not typically see psychiatrists contributing to discussions on the virus itself but more about the mental health ramifications of COVID-19. Psychiatrists are also not often considered integral in the role of Read more… Psychiatrists can be valuable vaccine educators originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, COVID-19 Coronavirus

JAMA retracts controversial masks study

A controversial study suggesting that masks may harm children by exposing them to high carbon dioxide levels was retracted on Friday. The research letter released in JAMA Pediatrics on June 30 had reported unacceptably high levels of carbon dioxide by German standards in air inside masks worn by children in a laboratory environment. In the retraction notice, the journal editors Read more… JAMA retracts controversial masks study originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, JAMA, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

During COVID, older patients stopped going to the doctor. Here’s how to change that.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out last year, Helen (not her real name) took all the right steps to protect herself. The 74-year-old self-isolated, wore a face mask, and practiced social distancing. Helen stayed safe from the virus during this time, but she put her health at risk in another way: for nearly two years, Read more… During COVID, older patients stopped going to the doctor. Here’s how to change that. originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Helen, Conditions, Geriatrics, COVID-19 Coronavirus

4 lessons the pandemic has taught health care

COVID-19 has drastically impacted every facet of life. Health care has been the center of this pandemic, and those working in health care have seen first-hand the crisis and the advancements made. As we reflect on the impact this pandemic has, we have seen both the worst and best of our health care system. 1. Read more… 4 lessons the pandemic has taught health care originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A morning code blue for a COVID patient

An excerpt from An Eschatological Isolation. At 12:11 p.m., the overhead speaker announced: “Code Blue, Three West.” She repeated, “Code Blue, Three West.” Shit. I started my stopwatch and saved the patient note I was writing in the back office of Three West, the intensive care unit of a community hospital in Tampa Bay. Already Read more… A morning code blue for a COVID patient originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, Hospital-Based Medicine, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Tampa Bay Already Read

Tips to help you overcome your pandemic bad habits

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S., and states issued stay-at-home orders, many people vowed to use their time at home positively, learning new skills, virtually volunteering, and getting into shape. Now, more than a year into the pandemic, many of those plans to better ourselves have fallen by the wayside, and people have Read more… Tips to help you overcome your pandemic bad habits originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Stop the spread of vaccine disinformation: a story in pictures

Emily Watters is a physician who explains vaccine disinformation and how it spreads (click to enlarge): Emily Watters is a psychiatrist and can be reached at The Cartoon Shrink. Image credits: Emily Watters Stop the spread of vaccine disinformation: a story in pictures originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Emily Watters

Telemedicine in Nepal during COVID-19

My phone rings. “Namaskar! My cough is really bothering me. What should I do?” says a middle-aged man. “Namaskar! I am Astha Prasai. I am here to help you. Please bear with me while I ask you your problem in detail,” I answer. Mr. Kafle from Kathmandu is worried about this nagging cough he has, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Nepal, Infectious Disease, Kathmandu, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Kafle

After COVID, now my soul can rest a little easier

I had been searching for a year. Because of the pandemic, despite the pandemic and to heal from the pandemic. Finally in May this year, I was gifted what seemed to have become an impossible task. I messaged the hospital manager: “The trees have arrived. I’ll come by later in the week to chat about Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A plea for help from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]

“This plea for help is on behalf of every hospital worker who has been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic — from the environmental services staff and medical assistants who are often not recognized, to the social workers and chaplains who are surrounded by distress, to the physicians and nurses who continue to Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Psychiatry, Infectious Disease, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Let the mourning wear black

What a year of change. A pandemic. Cancer. Death. Loss. Fighting. Abandonment. Pain. Becoming an orphan. Becoming a caregiver. My family was hit with a sledgehammer and crushed into pieces. My joyful plans and decades of hard work wiped away with the insidious evil of a 5 x 7 mm tumor that spread like the Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

COVID in Pakistan: a physician’s story [PODCAST]

“The right choice of words, at the right time, can lift a person out of despair and literally save a person’s life, while an ill-chosen word, or worse, a purposely harsh one, can scar a person. The entire field of narrative medicine is formed around the principle of reviving empathy in doctors towards patients and Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Pakistan, Infectious Disease, PA NP, Hospital-Based Medicine, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Meet the physician who educates patients with cartoons [PODCAST]

Listen to psychiatrist Emily Watters’ work with the homeless population and how she got her start writing cartoons, educating patients using out-of-the-box communication strategies. Emily Watters is a psychiatrist and can be reached at The Cartoon Shrink. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD articles, “Blood clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine: a comic Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Infectious Disease, Johnson Johnson, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Emily Watters

COVID vaccines’ tragic dance [PODCAST]

“As a species, we have been an abject failure in dealing with a worldwide crisis. We politicize things for money, political reasons and some kind of weird power, even when it kills us in the process. We already have a World Health Organization (WHO). Would it be so difficult to staff it with the best Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Infectious Disease, World Health Organization WHO, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

You need a break from the front lines of health care

The current era of health care delivery has been aptly compared with going to war against an invisible enemy that can attack anywhere, at any time and with novel means. This invisible enemy was attacking the civilians as well as the “front line” with vigor. We have attempted to learn on the fly and use Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A physician’s COVID experience in spoken story

The following is a transcription of Dr. Deshpande’s spoken story. What is wrong with me? I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Why am I so scared now? That’s what I’m thinking as I drive to the hospital during the early part of the pandemic, March, April 2020. I am at the hospital’s parking garage, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, Deshpande, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Being the angel of death during a pandemic

I was looking forward to March 2020. My boyfriend and I had a long-awaited vacation to Aruba we were looking forward to. Everything is packed, plans are finalized, and the world shuts down three days before our trip. Frustrated, we refuse to believe that a “virus” is worthy of shutting the world down. “What’s the Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Aruba, Conditions, PA NP, Critical Care, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Human connections, cancer care, and COVID-19 restrictions

The desire for human connection is so irrevocably and putatively a tenet of the human condition. The relationships we form with one another are quintessential in adding value to our lives and in fostering loving bonds. And the way we express this connection with one another could be through a multitude of means, whether it Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, Hospital-Based Medicine, Oncology/Hematology, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Our niche world demands a new approach to health

When Elvis Presley rolled up his sleeve and received the polio vaccine backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, most Americans knew about it. At the time, the only stars hotter than rock ‘n’ roll itself were Presley, the genre’s de facto king, and Sullivan, the host who brought its biggest headliners to the Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Elvis Presley, Infectious Disease, Sullivan, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

COVID 1 year later: thoughts from a small-town physician

This time last year, many of us were bewildered that our country and the world had been halted by a newly declared pandemic caused by a novel virus. Reports from physician colleagues on both coasts terrified me. Fast forward to June 2021, and 272 people in Midland have died. Two hundred and seventy-two mothers, fathers, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Midland, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus