Tag: Covid 19
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Book review: A history of vaccines and anti-vaxxers
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Infectious diseases have been a scourge throughout human history. The first recorded epidemic was of the plague that occurred in Athens from 430–427 BC, chronicled in the writings of Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War. In nineteenth-century Britain, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, measles, smallpox, and cholera were major…
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An emergency nurse in the time of Covid
Kimberly TranchitaChicago, Illinois, United States April 2020 I hug my family and leave for work in the ED. No cars on the road. I stop at McDonald’s to get my free “frontline worker” cup of coffee. I no longer bring my own coffee or anything else to work in an attempt to limit the germs…
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Finding our way back to healing
Frances MilatMelbourne, Australia “Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.” —Mary Oliver Early in 2020, as my family flew home to Australia from a medical sabbatical in the United States, we started to hear reports of serious illness and death among our colleagues. Soon, the medical institutions and communities that had…
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The silent struggles of a healer
Biplab AdhikariLouisville, Kentucky, United States A regular day, it’s time for work,News of a virus, where shadows lurk.No treatment, no vaccine, no known fix,Symptoms vague, it’s all in the mix. Don a mask, the silent plea,Will this new case find its way to me?At work, I change, suit up tight,Double mask, face shield, ready for…
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Book review: Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Simon Schama, the eminent historian and broadcaster, has turned his attention to medical history. His new book, gestated and born during the COVID pandemic, is a chronicle of three pandemic diseases that have afflicted humans for centuries: smallpox, cholera, and plague. He opens the book with a quote from Pliny…
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From Sophocles to the frontline
Alexandra PliakopanouIoannina, Greece In the deserted misty land of Lemnos, a wailing voice echoes, emanating from a wounded warrior abandoned by his comrades nine years ago. Philoctetes, the titular character of Sophocles’ 409 BC play and once a great hero of the Greeks, now lies in misery with a festering wound that oozes pus and…
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The Mind of Covid-19
Terrance JonesChicago, Illinois, United States The Mind of Covid-19 reflects and recalls the one year and two months stuck in my home during the pandemic. Lots of reflection, creation, curiosity, worry, stress, fear, loss, and inspiration. An explosion of color depicts the ugliness of the fight transforming into the beauty of victory. Working in the…
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Remembering your COVID birth
Laura KahnChicago, IL The thing about having your first baby at the beginning of a pandemic is that everything seems equally strange, because you don’t have a prior kid for comparison. I wait anxiously for my son to poop, I wear a mask when I leave the house, I sanitize everything, I wake every hour—it…
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A pandemic of emotions: Navigating vaccine hesitancy in a post-pandemic world
Nidhi Bhaskar Providence, Rhode Island Photo by CDC on Pexels Four years before the COVID-19 pandemic, I was registering community members at a local health fair. An elderly man in line mentioned that he would never receive a flu shot because his healthy cousin had died of an aneurysm after receiving one. I spoke…