Handel’s Messiah for Our Time (the COVID-19 Edition)
The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Massachusetts presented an annual Handel’s Messiah concert for the holidays last December 20, 2020; they have done so since 1854. Like so many performances in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, it pivoted (and overall quite successfully) to an online format this year. From a Performing Arts Medicine […]
Medical Humanities at the Philippine General Hospital, in the time of COVID-19
In April, 2020 a call went out for photos and written pieces chronicling the pandemic experience at the University of the Philippines and Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) – the plan was to collect these for the PGH Human Spirit Project. The pandemic isn’t over yet, but here are the fruits of that labor: a 3-volume […]
When Algorithms Fail
After approval by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration on December 10, 2020, the Pfizer vaccine made its way to hospitals all over the country. By Monday the 14th, I started seeing colleagues and friends’ social media posts about receiving the vaccine – all very uplifting: excited, ecstatic, emotional about what people called the […]
Racism Issues and COVID-19
I read this article today about pulse oximeters, and I thought of several articles I read previously in September. Pulse oximeters are borne of racist bias in technology. I was today years old when I found out. And it makes sense. They work by sensing the color of blood flowing under the skin, based on […]
How does a spinal cord injury affect your body? Part 4 of 4.
Fourth of a series. Read part one (mobility, spasms, skin), part two (bowel, bladder, sex), and part three (heart, blood pressure, breathing). This post will deal with musculoskeletal issues: muscles and bones. In addition to problems with mobility, not being able to use all four limbs has its other medical complications. Overuse Humans are meant […]
The Irony of Being Filipino in a world with COVID-19
Today, I read this article on COVID-19 and how it affects Filipinos in the diaspora, by Filipino-American Susan Araneta (she has a Masters degree in Public Health so she certainly knows what she is talking about). Access full article here: http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/a-virus-among-us-filipinos-and-covid-19 In her introduction, she writes about the first COVID-19 vaccine administered in the United […]
How does a spinal cord injury affect your body? Part 3 of 4.
Third of a series. Read part one (mobility, spasms, skin) and part two (bowel, bladder, sex). There are some things in the human body that you don’t think about until there’s something wrong… then you notice. A spinal cord injury can do that and be the “something wrong” that messes things up. This blog post […]
How does a spinal cord injury affect your body? Part 2 of 4.
Second of a series. Find part one (mobility, spasms, skin) here. Unlike the loss of movement, losing control of bodily functions like bowel movements, urination and sex are less obvious clinical complications of spinal cord injury (SCI). Stuff you take for granted, which are noticed when they’re not working. Bowel Movements Think about it: you […]
King Lear and the Not So Happy Ending
Greg Doran, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, thinks the Bubonic plague helped shape William Shakespeare’ writing. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/dec/13/a-happy-ending-for-king-lear-trauma-of-plague-caused-shakespeare-to-change-plays-finale We studied King Lear sometime in college. Yes I found it depressing. Interesting that the source play (that Shakespeare based his King Lear on) had a happy ending, but he was so traumatized by all the […]
COVID-19: What Australia Did Right
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/by-trusting-in-their-scientists-australia-is-down-to-zero-new-covid-19-cases The government listened to scientists and physicians. They put partisan politics and ideology aside. Politicians on the national government level had consistent and clear messaging that “it’s a crisis, we will have trials, but we’re all in this together and we have to work together as a nation”. People complied (except maybe for the […]
