During the past few weeks I have been struggling with anger, resentment, and frustration with my fellow Americans. It feels like around every corner there are people being spiteful, hateful, and selfish. But this week I started to open my eyes and see something else.

“At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, there was a lot of interest around a specific box design that proved effective at containing droplets emitted by patients during intubation,” said Rajnish Gupta, associate professor of anesthesiology at VUMC. “This design gained rapid interest around the world as a means to improve safety. But since, we’ve also learned that these boxes do not offer sufficient protection against aerosols.”

The new solution, created by Gupta and the team at VISE, led by Duke Herrell, professor of urologic surgery and professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, will give clinicians a way to quickly and markedly improve the boxes they already have on hand.

I’ve never written a blog before and I’m definitely not sure if I can keep it up. I always feel like I have something to say, but just not sure if anyone cares to hear it. But I’ll try.

My friend and colleague Dr. Ed Mariano has taken to this medium and really developed an audience with his englightened thoughts and opinions. I thought I might need to take a hand at it.