As 2020 concluded with all of the unprecedented events, with the tragedies people had to suffer and are still suffering from, with all the good and bad, we enter the New Year of 2021 with some hope; hoping for better health, better strategies to combat what we are dealing with in this pandemic, and being … Read more
Anesthesia alert! This overhead call alerting pending intubation can be heard bellowing throughout the hallways of my medical center several times throughout the day and is seemingly the soundtrack of COVID-19. My typical routine is to pause, make sure it’s not sounding the alarm to my patient’s room, and then continue with my workday. It … Read more
The history of humankind has never witnessed an infectious agent deadlier than Smallpox. It is thought to have first appeared in Asia or Africa thousands of years ago, before spreading to the rest of the world. This virulent disease was causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries … Read more
The mid-December rollout of two FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines coincided with a surge in US infections, as we surpassed 21 million cases and 300k deaths. Amidst the hope for a recovery from the virus, that has captivated the world for the past 10 months, the vaccine rollout was met with stiff resistance from many Americans. Of … Read more
Last week at Cedars-Sinai, we received an email asking its employees interested in getting the vaccine against COVID19. I was very excited about this since it means a lot of things at once. The development of safe mRNA vaccines in a short period shows how much technology has advanced and highlights the importance of working … Read more
While we are living in the third peak of COVID-19 pandemic, we have been delighted to hear about the recent food and drug administration (FDA) approval of the COVID-19 vaccine, after trials involving hundreds or more of patients showed the vaccine safety and efficacy [1,2]. However, the COVID-19 vaccine is associated with some side effects, … Read more
It’s hard to believe the majority of 2020 was spent in a pandemic. The world came to a screeching halt and the entire scientific community worked tirelessly to find ways to keep each other safe. However, we all have experienced highs and lows due to COVID-19. But we were fortunate to have Operation Warp Speed … Read more
As a member of the AHA FIT programming subcommittee, I could not have been more excited about the upcoming scientific sessions meeting. The planning for this meeting began many months in advance with lots of zoom sessions, emails, and organizing to help lay the groundwork for a successful event. As a new member of the … Read more
My dad desperately tried to get a hold of me on the morning of December 1, 2020 but for some reason, I hadn’t seen that he called me and so I found out my aunt, Dr. Somaya Saad Zaghloul, succumbed to COVID-19 via my mom and aunt’s medical school classmate on Facebook Messenger. Exactly what … Read more
The American Heart Association (AHA) COVID-19 registry, leveraging the existing AHA Get With The Guideline (GWTG) platform, was developed to better understand hospital outcomes and adverse cardiovascular complications for patients with COVID-19. The registry was formulated to accelerate the pace of COVID-19 research and quality improvement, where granular data were collected and analyzed at an … Read more