Author Archives: ceopate

Here is the most frequent question I get. It goes something like this. The virus isn’t going away. We can’t stop it without a vaccine and that could be a very long time, and our economy cannot be shut down that long. The only way to slow it down is to achieve herd immunity. WeContinue reading “The Most Frequent Question I get about COVID”

A Tribute to our Public Health Workers President Trump has made an apt analogy indicating that we are fighting a war against an invisible enemy. My service on the Governor’s Coronavirus Work Group has given me an opportunity to see Idaho’s “invisible army” from behind the scenes. I refer to the amazing men and womenContinue reading “The Invisible Army”

No test is perfect. We can certainly strive for perfection, but perfection is not a proper criterion for the development or use of a test. As a physician, two golden rules have guided my past practice. Number one, don’t order a test unless you plan to do something different depending on its result (lots ofContinue reading “Why Idaho Employers Should NOT use Antibody Testing Today to “Get People Back to Work””

 Well, the first step is to see if any of your insurance policies provide for business interruption or business disruption coverage. It is certainly possible that you have a separate policy for business interruption, but not infrequently, this may be covered under an overall comprehensive coverage policy or as part of a property/casualty policy. ItContinue reading “Will Your Business be Covered for Financial Losses Due to Coronavirus?”

Life is tough enough when everything is going relatively well. But, at a time like this, with fear, uncertainty, loss of autonomy, a decrease in our social interactions, an endless news cycle of bad news, and financial hardship, anyone can be vulnerable to depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or a relapse for alcoholics or drug addicts.Continue reading “Your Mental Health during this Trying Time”

Today, Idaho’s governor Brad Little announced his much-awaited decision as to the fate of his March 25, 2020 order to stay-in-place that would have expired tonight at midnight. His decision was to extend the current order until April 30 and to amend it to include three new provisions: Anyone traveling to Idaho from out ofContinue reading “The Governor’s Order, What it means for you, and Important information about Testing”

We are fighting a war, and while doing so it can be difficult to look forward into the future. Right now, we are just trying to decide when will this disease “peak,” level off and decline and when is it safe to relax restrictions that have been placed on Americans. But, for the purposes ofContinue reading “The Coronavirus Pandemic – Where do we go from here?”

I want to express my admiration for our health care professionals – doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, pharmacists, infection control practitioners, laboratory technologists, nursing and medical assistants and everyone else involved in caring for our patients, as well as those who make it possible for them to provide that careContinue reading “A Tribute to Health Care Workers”

Here are some of the questions I have been asked lately and my responses: What is the difference between the terms coronavirus and COVID? The virus that is causing this current pandemic is a member of the coronavirus family. The specific name of this virus is SARS-CoV-2. COVID, or specifically, COVID-19 is the name forContinue reading “Recent Questions I have been Asked About the Coronavirus”

This question has come up again, most recently in an article appearing in the Washington Post yesterday that claimed that confidential sources in the government indicated the CDC is considering whether to make a recommendation that the public wear masks when they are out and about. This past weekend, I ran to the store andContinue reading “Should Healthy People Wear Masks out in Public?”