“I don’t mean to sound harsh. And I owe you honesty.” I almost always say this when I speak to families about the condition of their critically ill loved one. Usually, when I say these words, my patient is very sick, and they are at high risk of dying. I have lost count how many […]

It’s all the same. It’s the same path. Patients with COVID-19 get admitted to the hospital, and the ones who become critically ill – the ones I end up seeing in the ICU – steadily get worse, fail conservative measures, require invasive mechanical ventilation, and then die. This is the path of most of the […]

The extent that some people will go to try and prevent COVID baffles me to no end. Now, there are people advocating gargling with povodine-iodine! Oh. My. God. Povodine-iodine is a skin antiseptic. It kills bacteria on the skin, and we have used it on the skin to disinfect prior to procedures. FYI, we no […]

It has happened to me and my colleagues far too often: watching a patient die from complications of COVID-19. While the ultimate cause of death is multiorgan failure – shock, respiratory failure, kidney failure, etc – the question is what caused this multiorgan failure? Many have postulated that secondary bacterial infections may be one culprit. […]

“No, ma’am. That’s all I’m going to say about that.” That was the response of a young barista at the coffee shop I was in when she asked whether she was going to get vaccinated. I could only shake my head as I left with my iced latte. And shaking my head in sheer exasperation […]

A friend of mine in Florida got vaccinated three months ago. He has been battling COVID-19 for more than a week now. He describes it as a “very bad cold.” A colleague of mine has also been fully vaccinated for more than six months. She has been battling COVID-19, as well, going to Urgent Care […]

There has always been uncertainty over how long immunity from SARS CoV-2 infection lasts. Is it three months? Six months? A year? Lifelong? Studies – and resultant headlines – abound. Enter a new study into the mix, published in the journal Nature. Scientists studied sixty-three individuals who recovered from COVID-19 12 months later. Most of […]

Understandably, the world has been hyperfocused on the global SARS CoV-2 pandemic. It has wreaked – and continues to wreak – havoc on many parts of our world. At the same time, there are other threats to the global health order to which we must pay attention, and one of these threats come from what […]

Twelve years ago, my eldest daughter died of cancer. It was the most horrific moment of my life. The pain is still very fresh.

The only way we will truly be independent from COVID is through vaccination.