May 24, 2021 Corona Update
So you think you can tellHeaven from hell?Blue skies from pain? Can you tell a green fieldFrom a cold steel rail?A smile from a veil?From Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here, 1975 On Friday, May 14th, The Center for Disease Control announced, somewhat unexpectedly, that our masks could come off. That is, if you were […]
May 2, 2021 Corona Update
“I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die” From the song Harmony Hall, by Vampire Weekend I heard this song over the weekend, and though the release of this music predated the pandemic, it pretty much sums up life over the last year. The good news is that we likely […]
March 31, 2021 Corona Update
So, it’s March 31st and I was anticipating that by this time, we would be celebrating the beginning of the end of the pandemic. And while that may in fact be true, several pesky facts are spoiling the party. Cases and hospitalizations are going up in a slew of states, including Michigan and New York. A larger […]
Feb 2, 2021 – Groundhog Day, 2021
“If there is no viral replication, there can be no viral mutations.” Anthony Fauci, January 31, 2021 This is the best answer I have seen yet to the question, “Why should I get the Covid-19 vaccine?” For all of the obvious reasons like, “I don’t want to die right now,” or “I don’t want the virus […]
January 4, 2021 Corona (Vaccine) Update
Questions about vaccine availability continue to pour in on emails and texts. We get it, most of you would like to have been vaccinated yesterday. Unfortunately, the roll out of vaccinations in Maryland has been a bit creaky, and this pattern is playing out in most other regions in the country. Communication from the state has […]
December 17, 2020 – Vaccines for The Holidays
This will be a holiday season to remember, or maybe not so much. There is really no good news about the progression of spread of the coronavirus in Maryland and across the country, but there is great news about very effective vaccines coming online as this is written. The vaccines, if all goes well and people […]
November 16, 2020 Corona Update
It’s been quite a while since I sent an “Update” email, and this one is going to be brief. You are all aware of the alarming increase in the number of Covid -19 cases around the country. Unfortunately, this trend is now occurring in Maryland. Maryland statistics show a rather sudden increase in cases, hospitalizations including critical […]
September 27, 2020 – Maskless States
Talking with patients and friends over the last few weeks, I was struck by the agreement on the importance of wearing masks when we are out and about, especially indoors, from people of all political persuasions. This got me thinking about how mask laws differ from state to state, and how that correlates with infection rates […]
September 8, 2020 – Aerosols
In 1990, smoking cigarettes was okay just about everywhere, including in the step-down unit of the coronary care unit at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center where I completed my residency. Patients, fresh from their recent heart attack, could share a cigarette with their CCU nurse. Ah, the good old days. During this time, I also worked […]
August 27, 2020 Corona Update
In my last two emails, I sounded the alarm about the second spike of spread of the coronavirus in the southern and western United States. Apparently, someone heard me. With the exception of Mississippi, over the last 4 weeks most measures of infection in the United States have improved, in some cases substantially, across the country. This […]