Musings on COVID-19 from an Infectious Disease Physician — *Posts do not represent position of my employer.

Dec 19, 2020

Health of the People and Star of the stormy Sea

In the midst of another COVID19-related novelty I realized one of the ways some of us will look back on 2020. I was reviewing our hospital’s plans for giving a new COVID19 treatment, bamlanivimab, with one of my new colleagues. As we walked…

Matt Perkins

May 1, 2020

Fear

I don’t recall feeling much fear since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. One definite exception occurred near the beginning of March. It was then that I first began reading about how bad things were in northern Italy. I read of horrific scenes in overwhelmed hospitals with shortages of ventilators and scores of…

Matt Perkins

Apr 24, 2020

COVID Dreams

Sunday night I did not sleep well. This is not a new problem for me as I’ve struggled with insomnia since childhood. But that night was an especially bad night of restlessness. Occasionally I’ve had infectious disease or medicine-related dreams and Sunday night was one of those nights. I don’t remember…

Matt Perkins

Apr 17, 2020

From Chikungunya to COVID-19

When I reflect on nearly six years of training and practice as an infectious disease doctor, one of the most natural ways I divide that time is by the series of outbreaks that have caused great human suffering but also inspired extraordinary efforts in research and innovation to…

Matt Perkins

Apr 11, 2020

Unexpected Blessings

I’ve long had an uneasy relationship with the way many Christians think about the suffering and evil we see in the world. In the mid-2000s, during the two years I studied theology at Asbury Theological Seminary, my mental and spiritual life was marked by a near-constant and emotionally…

Matt Perkins

Apr 9, 2020

First thoughts and first 100 days

Someone asked me if I took immediate notice when I heard of an outbreak of a new coronavirus which later would be named SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19. I replied with a quick “yes”. I don’t know what date I first heard about the outbreak of a new pneumonia-like…

Matt Perkins

Apr 2, 2020

How bad is it?

A question that has been at the forefront of my mind since I first heard of an outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has been, “how deadly is this virus?” I knew that the other novel coronaviruses in recent history were both quite deadly — SARS with an overall case fatality rate (CFR) of around 11%…

Matt Perkins

Mar 30, 2020

Liminality

One theme I’ve repeatedly encountered in the sermons of my parish priest, the Rev. Dr. Lin Lilley, is the theme of “Liminal Space.” This theme appeared as I watched and listened to Mass yesterday morning on Zoom, as she preached on the raising from the dead of Lazarus in John’s Gospel, the Valley of the Dry…