It’s been over three years since I saw my first COVID-19 patient in the emergency department. The image of that x-ray is burned into my memory: clusters of white spots spread out across both sides of the patient’s lung. A dramatic, and not all that common, clinical finding. The patient in front of me already had a fever and was breathing quickly, in need of extra oxygen support. I didn’t know then the significance that patient would have on me, but three years later I think about them often, and how they marked the start of a three plus year journey that changed the world.
