Her eyes were tired but happy above her surgical mask. Her breathing was quick, as she sat with her 2-day old son cradled in her arms. Ana looked down as he started to wiggle, rooting for a meal. She’d been discharged from the hospital 24 hours after her vaginal delivery, her COVID-related cough and difficulty breathing improved but not resolved. Ana and her son had a shared respiratory clinic appointment with a family physician—one ...

As we seek justice for the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and the long list of Black victims of police violence; as we grapple with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Hispanic, Black, and Indigenous communities; and as we acknowledge the tremendous toll of

As COVID-19 devastates lives throughout the world, the inequities experienced by transgender and gender-diverse individuals have become further illuminated. The ...

He’s young. Just 49 years old. A long life ahead of him. He was hospitalized a week ago and doing okay initially on the medical floor. After his saturations were consistently in the 80s on the highest level of supplemental oxygen, he needed to be intubated. We asked him if he wanted to call his family before intubation, just like we do with all our COVID patients… because we know it might be the last time. He declined, said he’s not in touch with his family and has no friends to call. He was adamant that he didn’t want his estranged parents or brother contacted for updates while ...

You know the old saying, “It’s hard for a fish to see the water in which it swims?” That’s true! And in the United States, we are all swimming through a polluted ocean. More of us are starting to see the icebergs and reefs that structure our watery landscape, in part because we are starting to understand that the wreckage that they cause is not “natural.” But we have been slower to see the water. And we need to see both, because it is the very murkiness of this water in which we swim that makes it hard for us to see the structures that harm and divide us. We swim in an ...

We’ve all seen the headlines—primary care practices are in trouble: “America’s looming primary care crisis,” “Fewer than 10% of primary care practices have stabilized operations amid COVID-19 pandemic,” and “

The physical toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is tangible, though its impact on mental health is just starting to be understood—and this includes the mental health impact on LGBTQ youth. At baseline, LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide compared ...

From the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was clear that America’s deep-rooted inequities would play a central, and likely devastating, role in the magnitude and distribution of the burden of disease. In early March, former New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett and I outlined these inequities and called for a human rights-based response focused on ...

A while back I was invited to attend a panel discussion on primary care at an area medical school. For 45 minutes the other two primary care doctors and I shared a lighthearted conversation about why we love primary care, interspersing various plugs for why the students should consider the field for themselves. After several stories about the satisfaction we derive from our jobs and the joys in the relationships we form with our patients, a student raised their hand to ask a question about how the current political climate was affecting our practice. “I’ll take this ...