“It’s a very insidious, beneath-the-radar-screen public health emergency…. [F]unction is being considerably impaired…[but] that doesn’t attract as much attention as a death rate.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci interview about long COVID, October 2022) I scanned Robbins Auditorium on Rose F. Kennedy (RFK) Center Day. I noted few masks; mine was the only N95. With the announced Read more
COVID-19
On the morning of January 7, 2022, I woke up to a winter wonderland. I usually welcome snow—but on that day it inspired worry, not wonder. I am a first-year developmental-behavioral pediatrics fellow at Einstein’s Rose F. Kennedy Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (RFK-CERC), where 32 of our 5- to 11-year-old patients with autism and Read more
Attention-grabbing headlines suggest that our crucial COVID-19 pandemic tools—monoclonal antibodies and vaccines—are incompatible. Beyond the controversy rests an evidence-based reality: monoclonal antibodies and vaccines are complementary aspects of patient care. Both are powerful interventions that can prevent hospitalizations and deaths from this virus. After weeks of declining cases and hospitalizations, the United States is experiencing Read more
I woke up at 3 a.m. recently worried about Jane, an unvaccinated colleague. Jane is efficient, kind, and compassionate, and she’s wonderful to patients, staff, and students. With the increase in the numbers of the delta variant of COVID-19, I’ve been losing sleep. Most of us in medicine have a little post-traumatic stress from the March/April 2020 COVID-19 surge. As of the end of June 2021, Jane had been hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine Read more
Editors’ Note: At the 2021 graduation ceremony for Montefiore’s Moses-Weiler Internal Medicine program, graduate Omar Moussa, M.D. shared a poem about the extraordinary circumstances his class faced due to COVID-19. What follows is that poem, titled, “Graduation 2021 – Monte Made.” Where else can we start but with the elephant in the room, An elephant morphed Read more
Several months ago, as an infectious-diseases specialist and a career-long vaccine enthusiast, I recommended caution in seeking early vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I write now, with much more information at hand, to reverse that stance. I suggest that all but the very few who might have contraindications (primarily severe allergies that are anaphylactic in Read more
