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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

Military Medicine

and COVID-19

By Rajeev Suri, MD, MBA, FACR, FSIR, FCIRSE, 2022 BCMS President

In the current era of COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 variants
that change almost every 3-4 months (most recent being Omicron
B.1.1.529 and Delta B.1.617.2), scientific breakthroughs can often
get lost in a deluge of the significant body of literature. One such
article was the announcement from the Walter Reed Army Insti-
tute of Research about the creation of a vaccine that effectively
fights all forms of COVID-19, including the new Omicron variant. In human trials so far, the vaccine known as
Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFN) COVID-19 vaccine has shown effectiveness not only against COVID-19,
but also against previous SARS viruses. In this ever-continuing battle against COVID-19, military medicine has
delivered yet again by looking at the long game, from the original emergence of SARS to planning ahead for future
variants. There are still two more human trial phases before a broader clinical rollout, but the future looks bright,
as SpFN will soon join a list of approved vaccines and post-exposure treatment options.
COVID-19 has fast-tracked innovation in the Military Health System (MHS) and many of these have already
helped the civilian world. MHS has been a leader in virtual health — using secure, accessible and compliant tech-
nology. Lessons learned from MHS helped us maintain the continuity of care for our patients through telehealth
services when our health care delivery systems were overwhelmed in the earlier part of the pandemic. Another
role of MHS has been its active involvement with drug development and clinical trials — including the intramus-
cular long-acting antibody AZD7442 (Evusheld from AstraZeneca) to prevent COVID-19 among people who
have been exposed to the disease (STORM CHASER Trial).
In addition, over the last two years of the pandemic, military medical personnel have been deployed in large
numbers to assist hospitals and health care facilities. This has become even more prominent now as civilian health
care staff shortages mount and hospitalizations rise due to the Omicron variant, while hospitals are still battling
the effects of the Delta variant. During the first surge in March 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers set up field
hospitals in several cities to handle the overflow of coronavirus cases, and had hospital ships Comfort and Mercy
available in New York and Los Angeles. Military medicine succeeds because of its culture of promoting innovations
in treatment, in improving health care delivery and expanding access.
As is evident from the recent pandemic, despite tremendous strides in public health, control of infectious dis-
eases and preventive medicine during the past century, infectious diseases remain a substantial threat to populations
and to the military. In 1893, Army Surgeon General George M. Sternberg established the Army Medical School,
now the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which has since served as a center of the Army’s medical research
efforts on infectious diseases like typhoid fever, yellow fever, malaria and dengue to name a few. It is befitting that
the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research continues even now as the bastion for military medicine’s innovations
against this newest pandemic.

Rajeev Suri, MD, MBA, FACR, FSIR, FCIRSE is the 2022 President of the Bexar County Medical Society,
Tenured Professor and Vice Chair of the Department Radiology at UT Health San Antonio, and Chief of Staff at
University Hospital San Antonio.

8 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • February 2022