Articles related to COVID-19

As of February 8, 2021, more than 31 million people in the U.S. had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with 36 cases of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System by the end of January. Is the onset of the condition related to the vaccines? The vaccines are considered safe overall, but what did the CDC and FDA have to say about it?

The short answer? No. That’s the sentiment from the 12,000+ physicians across 29 specialists who took part in Medscape’s recently released Physician Lifestyle & Happiness Report 2021. Physician burnout and dissatisfaction are not new, but before the pandemic in last year’s survey, 82% of doctors reported they were largely happy outside of work. In 2021, only 58% can say the same.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly putting a hold on everything, approvals of new drugs have not waned. In fact, despite their high price tags – median prices ranged from $766 million to $2.8 billion – new drugs continue to roll out in 2021. Here are five new drugs approved this year that you may find useful in your clinical practice of medicine.

This fascinating case of a 61-year-old male in the UK is the only report so far regarding COVID-19 induced cancer remission. Ridden with stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma, the COVID-19 infected patient was hospitalized for 11 days but did not receive any cancer treatments. Four months later, PET-CT scans show the lymphoma largely gone. How did this happen and what are the implications for new treatments?

COVID-19 has led to severe mental repercussions, which is made worse when considering what types of challenges people were having before the pandemic even hit. Considering this, it’s a good time to review the drug-drug interactions (DDIs) psychotropic drugs can have with each other, not to mention other drugs for the most common conditions. Here are 20 such interactions for your review. 

A neurologist shares his experience receiving the first dose of the vaccine and what he felt during those 15 minutes of observation time. He had some reservations about the safety of the new vaccine, so was he about to become a statistic in the next FDA safety bulletin? Read on to discover the side effect — a feeling he hadn’t experienced in quite some time.