Waiting Rooms Are Packed With Virus: Why Don’t We Learn?

J. Edward Les, MD
8 min readNov 10, 2022

A short trip down memory’s troubled lane.

Early in 2020, with alarming news coming out of China regarding a new and super-infectious respiratory virus, I wrote an essay invoking an innovative approach to managing emergency departments during outbreaks of infectious disease. It’s extraordinary, really, to read that piece now. Sentences such as:

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J. Edward Les, MD

Pediatric emergency physician. Former veterinarian. Father. Writer. Cancer survivor.