Tag: Covid 19
-
The loneliness of the long-living doctor
Peter Arnold Sydney, Australia Study of the head of an old man. Peter Paul Rubens. between 1610 and 1615. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Via Wikimedia. A noticeable phenomenon of the twenty-first century is the increasing frequency of friendships between older men. The importance of such friendships to both mental and physical health has been well documented.1,2,3…
-
To wear or not to wear? Attitudes towards mask wearing then and now
Mariella Scerri Victor Grech Mellieha, Malta In September 1918, the Red Cross recommended two-layer gauze masks to halt the spread of “plague.” Image: Public Domain via Wikimedia. More than a century ago, as the 1918 influenza pandemic raged around the globe, masks of gauze and cheesecloth became the facial frontlines in the battle against…
-
A wrong time to die
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Lockdown in Thessaloniki. Photo by the author. Death is the one absolute and unexceptional certainty in life. In the Bible we read that there is a time for everything, including a time to die [Ecclesiastes 3:2]. Is there ever a “right” time to die? Faced with such a question, we…
-
Solitude
Donna PuccianiWheaton, Illinois, United States You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley . . . —American Folk Song We learn to be alonefor months when microscopicmurder floats in the airlike so much smoke. We learn to fearthe passing strangerwhose only misdeedis walking two large dogson our shared sidewalk,their communal breathexploding in lethal stardust. We learn…
-
Book review: Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Gavin Francis is a Scottish doctor, author, and traveler who has worked in emergency medicine, family medicine, and as the resident doctor for the Antarctic survey, which resulted in a previous book. His wanderlust and way with words have been favorably compared to the late Bruce Chatwin. Island Dreams: Mapping…
-
Wellbeing
Sanjana Sundara Raj Sreenath El Paso, Texas, United States This painting portrays the physical and psychological impact of the pandemic. It captures not only the physical isolation due to social distancing but also feelings of loneliness. The cognitive and mental health after-effects can persist long after recovering from Covid-19. With increased feelings of anxiety,…
-
Enlightenment from Sherlock Holmes on COVID-19 associated perilous boredom
Daniel Gelfman Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Evening silhouette of Sherlock Holmes’s statue at Baker street, the real place where he never lived. Photo by dynamosquito. Taken January 11, 2010. Via Wikimedia Boredom can useful. It can motivate people to do great things. It can also be dangerous by increasing the risk of depression and…
-
Young, pretty, and not quite right
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Photo by Anthony Papagiannis. Unless we are in pediatrics, we start in clinical practice with our patients tending to be in the age range of our parents, or even older. Increasingly, as the grey in our temples is promoted to silver, their mean age gets closer to ours, and the…
-
Book review: Viruses, Plagues, and History by M. B. A. Oldstone
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom The first edition of Viruses, Plagues, and History was published to great acclaim twenty years ago and has now been updated to include the pandemics of the twenty-first century. These include the SARS, MERS, and Zika virus outbreaks, which have now been eclipsed by COVID-19. The early story of the…
-
Intubation incarceration: A true tale of torture
Abram GabrielPiscataway, New Jersey, United States For five days, I could not speak at all. In November 2010, I had a brainstem stroke resulting from an arteriovenous fistula. I spent nearly a month in a coma in a regional teaching hospital, and seven weeks in an acute rehabilitation center. While my mind is now clear,…