COVID-19

January 05, 2021

The US and the world must appreciate the role of the pharmaceutical industry—the investigators, physicians and business leaders—who are rescuing the world from COVID-19. It’s the medical breakthrough of our lifetime.

January 04, 2021

Infection preventionists need to spread the message and articulate the uncertainties of this new variant of COVID-19. They need to emphasize that it is just not the old who are at risk and employ stricter containment measures.

January 04, 2021

Just how much more serious of a threat South Africa’s 501Y.V2 COVID variant represents has yet to be definitively answered, but British health officials argue that it’s much worse than the UK’s B117.

December 31, 2020

2021 will likely mean a mixture of things for infection preventionists (IPs). First, a focused effort on vaccine education. While this is a larger effort, IPs have always played a significant role in education and answering questions while rounding on the units and clinics.

December 31, 2020

Maureen Vowles: “I think that the relationship between infection preventionists and public health is key to the success of preventing CRAB and other multi-drug resistant organisms.”

December 30, 2020

Kristy Warren: “We need to do everything we can to help protect our providers when performing these aerosol generating procedures. And subsequently those providers that enter the room or exit the room after these procedures have occurred.”

December 29, 2020

Paula J. Olsiewski, PhD: “Healthcare workers at hospitals are always concerned about the air because historically, we know many disease agents are transmitted through the air, whether it’s measles or tuberculosis. Those appear on the scene long before COVID-19.”

December 28, 2020

Ravi Starzl, PhD: “If you’re constantly focused on trying to escalate the war of destruction, I think that the bacteria will always win that war. They just have too many countermeasures available to them and our rate of developing new antibiotics is far slower than their rate of developing countermeasures.”

December 23, 2020

Though tough months lie ahead for infection preventionists and other healthcare professionals, hope remains that at some point in 2021 things will begin to settle down. In the end, it comes down to a simple formula: We win, COVID-19 loses.

December 22, 2020

We must treat this strain with the respect it deserves, but we must not panic. There is no doubt that increased infectivity equates with increases in deaths, but it does not mean the vaccines will not work.