Practice Management
Refusal by many to believe that COVID-19 is as transmissible or dangerous as it is (and, subsequently, refusal to follow guidelines on reducing risk for transmission) has been one factor in the nearly unchecked spread of the virus for much of the past year. Public education campaigns fell on deaf ears, too often. Now, however, it appears that the national burden became so great that even naysayers took heed and started changing their ways. According …
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Americans have been smoking less and less for years—that is, until social distancing pushed many to take up or increase the habit, according to data from Altria Group Inc., which owns the Marlboro cigarette brand. Sales were flat in 2020 after falling annually 5.5% the previous year, a slide that started years earlier thanks in part to steep taxes on cigarettes and the growing popularity of vaping devices, including e-cigarettes. This reversal comes at a …
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As more data on COVID-19 emerge, urgent care patients need to be educated on what to expect not only during acute illness (such as the need for quarantining and when hospitalization may be warranted), but also on the lasting effects of the disease even after it has resolved. The Lancet just published a study revealing that most patients (63%) still complain of fatigue or muscle weakness 6 months post resolution, with over 20% continuing to …
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Increasing legal availability, shutdown of many bars and restaurants, and overall anxiety related to the pandemic are likely responsible for significant growth in the U.S. marijuana market in 2020. The cannabis website Leafly reports that sales grew at least 67% last year; it’s now a $17.9 billion industry in this country. While that’s clearly good for that marketplace, it’s safe to say that urgent care centers could see more patients presenting with potentially serious complaints …
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Whatever degree of comfort there might have been in knowing variants in the COVID-19 virus occurred far from U.S. shores has disappeared with the news that a new one has been identified in California. It was discovered, independently, by two research teams who were looking for indications that the British variant could have crossed “the pond.” While they did find a few such cases in a couple of southern California counties, the more important discovery …
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Fear was high that the arrival of flu season would compound the mass illness and mounting deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. As we reach the midway point, however, influenza has hardly been a blip on the screen. According to the World Health Organization, this is likely due to precautions against the coronavirus also having a protective effect for flu. While COVID-19 deniers scoff at such things, it’s clear that most Americans are in fact …
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Patients who recover from COVID-19 infection may be comforted by new data suggesting their antibodies could provide at least 5 months of protection from new infection. The Sarscov2 Immunity & Reinfection EvaluationN (SIREN) study indicates that recovered individuals have at least 83% protection from reinfection over that time period, if not longer. However, as noted in an article posted by Medscape, some of those patients may still be capable of transmitting the virus to people …
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When the COVID-19 pandemic really started picking up steam in the U.S. last spring, the threat to healthcare workers’ emotional wellbeing was seen as being related to the rapid rise in cases and how quickly hospital systems became overloaded; on the urgent care front, there was some of that in urban areas but in other locales there was worry over job security as patient visits dropped. Now, however, the length of time we’ve all been …
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Even with a U.S. death toll in the hundreds of thousands, some people remain skeptical of vaccines, the value of social distancing, and the overall dangers of COVID-19. The CBS affiliate in Dallas ran a story recently that might make a dent, however. It quotes a trauma surgeon and assistant professor at Texas Tech University as saying that survivors are likely to have some degree of lung damage after recovering—with their x-rays sometimes worse than …
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Many “side effects” of the COVID-19 pandemic could have been anticipated due to the nature of the infection—eg, exacerbation of existing lung problems—or social distancing measures, such as an increase in depression and anxiety. Then again, others are likely unforeseen. The Canadian Urological Association Journal published an article detailing an increase in male genitalia injuries coinciding with a spike in COVID-19 cases. While there was no solid conclusion as to why this occurred, the authors …
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