Name: Jarod Fox, MD
Profession: Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease
Job Title and Location: Infectious Disease, Florida

Jarod Fox is an infectious disease physician at a hospital in a bustling Floridian city. He is married to a fellow physician, with whom he shares three small children. 

His life has been at the epicenter of his hospital’s response to the novel Coronavirus. He has been an integral part of the planning committees on the frontlines of this pandemic. He works with infection prevention, nursing, administration, and fellow physicians to develop best practices for infection control. He has noticed that there is a new found camaraderie between healthcare professionals.

“Mostly everyone has become more collaborative during this process,” he said. “I speak with people I don’t usually speak with on an almost daily basis.”

He has broached the delicate topic of personal protective with the staff and his fellow clinicians. However, as someone directly involved in the hospital guidelines he hasn’t seen any friction about the newly instated measures. 

“We discussed the rationale (with the clinical staff) behind those decisions – the why.” Dr. Fox further clarified it was about doing the right thing, “We are trying to keep them safe, we aren’t just trying to save PPE.”

He does admit that days have been different, many more administrative duties have been added to his full clinical plate. He has a minimum of two planning meetings per day along with his normal rounding, including on COVID-19 patients. He either starts or ends his day on that floor, in an effort to conserve PPE.

He finds their various presentations puzzling, their disease course a mystery. “It surprises me how varying their illness is – some are hardly sick at all and then others are on ventilators.” His experience mirrors the reports around the nation, young patients with no known comorbidities with poor outcomes. It can be jarring at times. “It’s hard to tell which patients will get better or which will get worse.”

Once Dr. Fox gets home (after running through the new hoops of changing immediately, showering, and being incredibly conscious of what he brings home to his young children) he is able to destress. The various running trails around his house offer relief via endorphins. Something he may need for a while yet.

As reopening begins so do the concerns of renewed spread. 

“The concern is that as people get back out there we end up back where we (started). People need to be mindful as they get back to their normal lives and they keep some sort of social distancing.”