Take a shot, isolate at hotel: Chinese volunteer 048 describes Covid-19 vaccine trial

‘We were treated pretty well, says one of 108 participants in trial in Wuhan, whose results were published on Friday. The potential vaccine has since become the world’s first to enter a second phase of human testing, according to WHO.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 25, 2020)

Coronavirus: Inside Wales’ largest hospital during pandemic

‘The constant low hum and whir of the ventilators keeping patients alive was punctuated by the urgent beep of monitors. Staff have to raise their voices to be heard here through the face masks and visors. They spend many long, hot hours in full PPE and leave with the marks of the shift on their faces.’

Read and view video here (BBC May 17, 2018)

The Covid-19 Chronicles: The changes we should aim to keep

‘...There are appreciable changes on a societal scale that we can maintain beyond Covid-19... First is the recognition of frontliners, health professionals and experts... The second are the transdisciplinary approaches i.e. all onboard problem solving that has become the necessary norm in dealing with Covid-19... Finally, the collaboration boom would not be possible without the unfettered use of the Internet for facilitating communications and processes.’

Read here (The Star, May 17, 2020)

‘The past six weeks have been unlike anything I’ve known’: A GP on how the pandemic has changed his work

‘It’s clear that though the lockdown has slashed transmission, it is provoking a silent epidemic of despair. Panic attacks, sleeplessness and plunging moods are all difficulties GPs are encountering daily – tough conversations to have at the best of times, but even tougher on the phone. Within our area of the city, we already know of suicides triggered by bankruptcies and business closures; and of marriages breaking down. Alcohol-induced injuries are up, as are injuries from assaults.’

Read here (The Guardian, May 12, 2020)

‘Finally, a virus got me.’ Scientist who fought Ebola and HIV reflects on facing death from COVID-19

‘Many people think COVID-19 kills 1% of patients, and the rest get away with some flulike symptoms. But the story gets more complicated. Many people will be left with chronic kidney and heart problems. Even their neural system is disrupted. There will be hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, possibly more, who will need treatments such as renal dialysis for the rest of their lives. The more we learn about the coronavirus, the more questions arise. We are learning while we are sailing. That’s why I get so annoyed by the many commentators on the sidelines who, without much insight, criticize the scientists and policymakers trying hard to get the epidemic under control. That’s very unfair.’

Read here (Science, May 8, 2020)

‘I thought stage IV cancer was bad enough... Then came a pandemic during the presidency of Donald Trump.’

‘I’m one of the people all of this social distancing is helping to stay alive, so far. I belong to the group of people—the infirm, the weak—who certain conservatives have said should offer themselves up to the coronavirus. I’m part of the “cure” that mustn’t be worse than “the problem,” according to Donald Trump. Glenn Beck seems to think we should show our patriotism by volunteering to be killed by the virus rather than “kill the country.”

Read here (The Atlantic, May 8, 2020. Pre-published for June issue)

Paul Garner: For 7 weeks I have been through a roller coaster of ill health, extreme emotions, and utter exhaustion

‘In mid March I developed covid-19. For almost seven weeks I have been through a roller coaster of ill health, extreme emotions, and utter exhaustion. Although not hospitalised, it has been frightening and long. The illness ebbs and flows, but never goes away. Health professionals, employers, partners, and people with the disease need to know that this illness can last for weeks, and the long tail is not some “post-viral fatigue syndrome”—it is the disease. People who have a more protracted illness need help to understand and cope with the constantly shifting, bizarre symptoms, and their unpredictable course.

‘The aim of this piece is to get this message out: for some people the illness goes on for a few weeks. Symptoms come and go, are strange and frightening. The exhaustion is severe, real, and part of the illness. And we all need support and love from the community around us.’

Read here (BMJ Opinion, May 5, 2020)

Nurses are trying to save us from the virus, and from ourselves

‘We’re in this together, but some of us are more in this than others. People keep saying that nurses are on the front lines, but they are actually behind enemy lines, surrounded on all sides. They are trying to save us, and save us from ourselves. Nurses are protesting protesters, standing in their scrubs and masks to glare at “freedom-loving” citizens who spew insults as they rally for the economy to reopen. Nurses are taking to social media to convey the extremity of their situations: They talk about war zones, about titrating a dozen IV drips while troubleshooting fluky ventilators, all without reliable stockpiles of supplies.’

Read here (The Washington Post, April 28, 2020)

Covid-19 and healthcare's guerrilla warfare

‘Since the Peninsular War in the early 1800s we have recognised guerrillas – the Viet Cong, the Tamil Tigers, and recently, the Taliban – frustrate and humiliate larger forces by discretely invading territories, co-opting locals and being seemingly resistant to traditional warfare offensives. Equally, our public health institutes, gleaming hospital buildings, expensive diagnostic machines, a legion of administrators and medical personnel have been humbled (and humiliated) by this virus. Our fragmented healthcare industry is now united by a microscopic organism, as competing systems share laboratory testing and treatment protocols while hospital leadership cross battle lines to share guarded patient census and drug availability information.’

This is a most personal and touching account by a doctor on the frontline in the US. Dr Avinesh S Bhar, now in Georgia, grew up in Kuala Lumpur.

Read here (SLIIP, April 9, 2020)