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2020 MEDICAL YEAR
IN REVIEW
Pandemonium
2020
By John J. Seidenfeld, MD
As I recap the year 2020, January 2020
months seem like waves We discovered that the vaping lung injury epidemic was attributable to a West Coast company
selling vitamin E oil to rogue marijuana growers for inclusion in vaping pods. The oil received in
coming ashore, each one
barrels by the distributor, had a warning label “not for inhalation”. It was repackaged into smaller
bigger than the last. At the
containers without labels and resold to cut THC put into vaping pods. Once off the market, the
time of this writing, more electronic vaping associated lung injury (EVALI) epidemic ended. Rare cases from toxic inhalants
than 230,000 people have have been reported over the past ten years and will continue to dribble in.
died from COVID 19 in Reports of a deadly strain of Coronavirus causing pneumonias and other serious illness were
received from Chinese authorities and front-line doctors beginning in December of 2019 (after
the U.S. causing anxiety
an initial coverup which often greets bad news). Life in the U.S. continued as before with no travel
and grief (numbers in ad-
restrictions, but the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) went on alert and began sending out
dition to expected deaths regular reports by early February for the period between December 2019 and February 2020. As
in prior years’ statistics). I now teach at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIW-
So many wise and SOM) and discuss topics such as Coronavirus with osteopathic medical learners, many felt no
alarm and were confident that the CDC and WHO (World Health Organization) would contain
wonderful people have
the outbreak. I made plans to get together with friends in the coming months, to travel to meetings
been lost. What happens and to make reservations for summer travel. Face-to-face work continued.
now and what lessons
have we learned? February 2020
More concern was raised as reports from the outbreak appeared in the New England Journal
of Medicine and Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report from the CDC. We felt concern about
18 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2020
