Our classmates in healthcare professions have experienced a myriad of challenges since the beginning of the pandemic.Continuing from our May/June column, Kevin Schulman recalls:“I was rounding at Stanford Hospital mid-March in 2020. At the start of my rotation no one in the hospital was wearing masks. By the end of the week we were all wearing masks, not knowing if the patients or if the staff were infected with Covid-19. Throughout the pandemic I have served as a hospital medicine attending, working with interns and residents caring for hospitalized patients on the medicine service. I have also been involved with Covid research. I helped to run one of the large National Institutes of Health multi-center convalescent plasma clinical trials (unfortunately, it did not work) and examined the importance of telemedicine in response to the challenges of the pandemic. I also worked with a marketing colleague to help develop communication strategies for the Covid vaccine for the United States and later validated this effort for the World Bank.” Gastroenterologist Bruce Greenwald writes that early in the pandemic his inpatient consultations continued, but outpatient visits and endoscopies screeched to a halt. Now configured for virtual office visits, he’s pleased that patients who previously traveled hours for a consultation can have an initial virtual visit, saving time and money. According to Bruce, “Everyone who’s behind on their screenings (you know who you are) today wants to be scheduled yesterday.” Jeff Tharp practices internal medicine and leads a primary care service of 400 independent and employee physicians. During the pandemic many shifted to virtual visits, when appropriate. Bruce and Jeff each described the frustrations shared by many of their colleagues, who sometimes worked with inadequate personal protection equipment, faced burnout and mortal injury in overcrowded hospitals, dealt with the politization and polarization of medical issues, and in some cases have suffered and died from Covid. Carole Sonnenfeld Geithner, a clinical social worker, volunteered for the Emotional PPE project, which offers pro bono counseling to frontline healthcare workers affected by the Covid crisis. A recurring theme has been the hurt and anger at family members unwilling to get vaccinated or who remain skeptical of the severe realities facing family members who work in healthcare. Sandy Johnson has pursued an academic career as a glaucoma specialist. She works at the University of Missouri, where she formed a glaucoma fellowship and is now the director. Deb Schiff and her husband are pediatric oncologists at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Deb cares primarily for a very vulnerable population—children with leukemia and children undergoing stem cell transplantation and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. Her patients began masking and social distancing before those practices were politicized. Recently, Deb’s family found a $10 bill in an envelope under their doormat with the message: “Roberts Family thanks you for your service during the pandemic.” They posted about the experience to express their thanks to the unknown responsible person; they’ve received 17,000 reactions and counting from across the country!

—Elliot Stultz, 421 West Melrose St., #8A, Chicago, IL 60657; elliotstultz@yahoo.com; Shanta Sullivan, 1541 North Sierra Bonita Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; shantaesullivan@gmail.com