HIV and ID Observations

December 30th, 2021

Omicron and Reduced Severity of COVID-19 — Some Good News We Desperately Need

We’ve been burned so many times making predictions about COVID-19 that I should post this conspicuously by my computer: The famous pundit meant, of course, that “you don’t know anything” — we know his true intentions since he also said “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” The “know nothing” quotation is a reminder that COVID-19 is […]

---

December 20th, 2021

Believe It or Not, We Already Have a Highly Effective Outpatient Antiviral Treatment for COVID-19

And that treatment is … (drum roll) … remdesivir. Yes, you heard me right. Remdesivir, the very same antiviral with a checkered history in COVID-19 clinical trials, with some studies showing efficacy (sort of), others not much of anything. What’s the truth here? For that, let’s turn to what gets my vote for the most unheralded highly favorable […]

---

December 15th, 2021

Do We Need to Remind People that COVID-19 Is Truly Awful?

Last month, I read a deeply harrowing description of what it’s like to be hospitalized with severe COVID-19. I strongly urge you to read the full thread: https://twitter.com/CRStoli/status/1458600993621430272?s=20&t=km6XxJ5IDsQGQKsygjXfWg Something about the plain, direct language he uses to describe the patient experience hits home here like few other depictions I’ve read — it rings true in so […]

---

December 13th, 2021

ID Learning Units from Inpatient ID Consults

Need a break from all-things COVID-19? Feeling OH-verwhelmed by OH-muh-kron? (I guess that’s how some pronounce it … or AWE-mee-kron… or oh-MIKE-ron … or who knows. Two things for sure — there’s no “n” after the “m”, and it’s a drag regardless of how it’s pronounced.) To cheer everyone up, here’s a palate cleanser of non-COVID-19 ID Learning Units […]

---

December 6th, 2021

Omicron and the Quest for “Negative Capability”

Wow, that was quite the depressing post-holiday week in ID Land. For that, we can thank the new villainous variant, Omicron, which arrived ironically just as most of us here in the United States sat down to celebrate something approaching a “normal” Thanksgiving for the first time in two years. Oh yes indeed, thank you very much […]

---

November 23rd, 2021

Gratitude for 40 Years of Progress in HIV Care and Research

I was working with one of our outstanding senior ID fellows in clinic last week, and she presented the case she’d just seen, a 54-year-old man with HIV (certain details changed for confidentiality): Will is doing great on [fill in one-pill daily regimen], missing no doses. He’s having some difficulty with sleep (his wife says he […]

---

November 12th, 2021

Time to Simplify the COVID-19 Vaccine Policy — Authorize a Booster Dose for Anyone Who Wants One

At this point in the post-vaccine era of the pandemic, we all know people who have had COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Patients, coworkers, family, friends. The reason these breakthroughs are so common is now obvious — our initial vaccine strategies did not provide durable protection against infection. And recognition of this fact prompted the FDA […]

---

October 31st, 2021

Interesting and Important Studies from IAS 2021 and IDWeek That Caught My Eye

As noted in my previous post, attending virtual meetings poses some serious challenges. The biggest obstacle:  trying to do one’s regular job while periodically checking in (or more likely not checking in) on the meeting. And while I might have been able to pull off some Really Rapid Reviews© after a few virtual meetings, not so […]

---

October 12th, 2021

A Few Thoughts on “Attending” Virtual Meetings

Once upon a time, long, long ago, before SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, many of us in academic medicine attended in-person scientific meetings that took place annually around the world. I was one such person — usually 2-3 times a year. My primary charge at each of these meetings was to assemble the best, or most interesting, or […]

---

October 1st, 2021

A Thank You to One of Our Best Patient-Teachers

Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital lost one of their best teachers this week. No, it wasn’t a distinguished professor or astute clinician. It was one of my long-term patients, who had given himself selflessly to teach dozens of medical students, residents, and (especially) ID fellows over the nearly 30 years I’d known him. Let’s […]

---