Opinion: The Covid-19 crisis too few are talking about: health care workers’ mental health
In the midst of this global pandemic, people are talking about the urgent and critical…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: Every American should wear a face mask to defeat Covid-19
To mask, or not to mask? That is the question. And it needs an answer…
Opinion: Invoking Bayh-Dole may be needed to get affordable Covid-19 treatments
As the Covid-19 pandemic strains the capacity of the U.S. health care system, attention is…
Opinion: If it comes to rationing, I shouldn’t have to be the one deciding who should live and who should die
Medical school didn’t teach me how to decide which of my patients should live and…
Opinion: Navigating the Covid-19 pandemic: We’re just clambering into a life raft. Dry land is far away
Imagine you are in a small boat far, far from shore. A surprise storm capsizes…
Opinion: Biosimilars could disappear if the Supreme Court overturns the ACA
With the sense of urgency rightly focused on slowing or stopping the spread of Covid-19,…
Opinion: Lessons from a different war for preventing moral injury among clinicians treating Covid-19
One week after President George W. Bush declared war in Iraq in 2003, I was…
Opinion: Create a cadre of community health workers to fight Covid-19 in the U.S.
Five years ago, I was working in Kono, a district in Sierra Leone, on projects…
Opinion: A radical approach to preventing Covid-19 infection in the homeless
There is only a small window of time in which we can prevent widespread transmission…
Opinion: Covid-19 testing: overcoming challenges in the next phase of the epidemic
Which is a better proxy for estimating the Covid-19 infection rate in the United States:…
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Opinion: It’s past time to fully deploy the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to fight Covid-19
Controlling a pandemic like Covid-19 requires both the intervention of government agencies and changes in…
Opinion: Hospitalized adults need their caregivers — they aren’t visitors
Social distancing, self-isolation, quarantine: These are among the essential public health interventions for the Covid-19…
Opinion: Community health workers will be the main defense in rural Uganda against coronavirus
It is a cool, still morning in Seeta Nazigo Village, Central Uganda. The heavy seasonal…
Opinion: Our best defense against Covid-19? Science
The United States gained a grim distinction in the world this week when it officially…
Opinion: Government rules led electronic health records astray. It’s time to reimagine them
With the passage of the HITECH Act in 2009, the Department of Health and Human…
Opinion: Abandoned by U.S. leaders, the only Covid-19 protection I can count on in my emergency department is trust
I step through the sliding glass doors of my hospital’s emergency department and immediately look…
Opinion: A CDC veteran asks: Why is the agency ‘sitting on the sidelines’ in the fight against Covid-19?
The public health challenge of our generation is right in front of us. SARS-CoV-2 appears…
Opinion: If Covid-19 will peak in June, teaching hospitals should consider delaying the start of new medical residents
Some projections place the peak of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. between May and June….
Opinion: Covid-19 is scary. A CRISPR-made pandemic could be scarier
Uncertainty breeds panic. As Covid-19 spreads across the planet, stock markets have crashed in response…
Opinion: Assisted living and Covid-19: the next Kirkland might not be a nursing home
With the national spotlight turned on nursing homes following the Covid-19 outbreak at the Life…
Opinion: Protect older and vulnerable health care workers from Covid-19
Since the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged late in 2019, health care…
Opinion: In a pandemic, hospital staffers need to get better at hand-washing
After visiting Ellis Island in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt noted the lack of hand-washing by…
Opinion: We need smart coronavirus testing, not just more testing
Despite three weeks of assurances, most Americans who have symptoms of Covid-19 still can’t get…
Opinion: People with serious illness can teach us a lot about living with Covid-19
As the U.S. grapples with a potentially deadly pandemic, it can learn a lot from…
Opinion: Antibiotic resistance: the hidden threat lurking behind Covid-19
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic highlights the critical need for rapid development of vaccines and antiviral…
Opinion: What Singapore can teach the U.S. about responding to Covid-19
Our country, Singapore, has managed to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within its…
Opinion: The white scarf on the door: a life-saving lesson from the 1918 Spanish flu
In 1918, a white scarf tied to the door of my grandmother’s family’s apartment on…
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Opinion: Covid-19 is reshaping the world of bioscience publishing
The Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly changing our lives in previously unimaginable ways and forcing us…
Opinion: We don’t send soldiers to fight a war without weapons. Give doctors what they need to fight Covid-19
My husband has been an emergency physician for 30 years. During that time, I have…
Opinion: I fought Ebola. Here’s my advice for health workers fighting Covid-19
In the summer of 2014, as I was preparing to fly to West Africa as…
Opinion: Testing medical students is big business. I see it as extortion
On Friday, I’ll be one of thousands of medical students nervously waiting for the results…
Opinion: A chronic illness conundrum: Should I tell my employer about my MS?
As I prepared to tell my employer that I have relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, I…
Opinion: A new self-triage tool can help you decide if you need medical care for Covid-19
If you have a cough, fever, or shortness of breath, how can you tell if…
Opinion: Telehealth overpromises during the Covid-19 pandemic
“No more germy waiting rooms.” That’s the pitch from telehealth companies as we face the…
Opinion: Insulin prices and pharmacy benefit manager rebates: pin the tail on the patient
Over the past 15 years, insulin prices have more than doubled. Pharmaceutical companies have been…
Opinion: Telemedicine could blunt the cost of unnecessary ED visits for Covid-19
Conversations that dominated the health policy discourse only a few weeks ago have been suspended…
Opinion: The economic rationale for strong action now against Covid-19
As governments and communities struggle to figure out the best way to deal with the…
Opinion: We know enough now to act decisively against Covid-19. Social distancing is a good place to start
In a recent and controversial First Opinion, epidemiologist and statistician John Ioannidis argues that we…
Opinion: Saving lives should be good business. Why doesn’t that apply to finding new antibiotics?
I have spent my career as a biomedical entrepreneur working to develop products that have…
Opinion: Allocate ventilators, other Covid-19 resources based on evidence, not political hunches
The emergence of Covid-19 and its worldwide spread has some of the United States’ top…
Opinion: A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data
The current coronavirus disease, Covid-19, has been called a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it may also…
Opinion: Generic ‘identity’ gets lost when companies juggle both generic and brand drugs
We think we know generic drug companies. They challenge patents held by brand firms. They…
Opinion: Covid-19 will worsen the opioid overdose crisis if we don’t prepare now
In cities across the country, morning is peak time at almost any opioid treatment program….
Opinion: Overreaction may be a bigger threat to public health than the novel coronavirus
In many infectious diseases, the immune system’s reaction to a virus, bacteria, or other pathogen…
Opinion: Data analysts: a new kind of whistleblower to ‘catch a rogue’?
Most whistleblower cases, regardless of industry, emerge through the bravery and integrity of an employee…
Opinion: Medical students can help combat Covid-19. Don’t send them home
Last week, while seeing a patient in the emergency department of Stanford Hospital, I witnessed…
Opinion: How Instagram gave hope to a mother — and her daughter’s doctor
I am not a fan of Instagram. As a physician who grew up and trained…
Opinion: Mending the broken social contract for pharmaceutical pricing and innovation
The biopharmaceutical industry is under unprecedented assault by the public and politicians. Hostility over launch…
Opinion: When surgery becomes ‘women’s work’: the devaluation of gynecologic specialties
For much of the 20th century, the work of medicine in the U.S. was performed…
Opinion: Covid-19 will be the ultimate stress test for electronic health record systems
Just as the levees of New Orleans stood little chance against the wrath of Hurricane…