With COVID-19 cases already numbering in the thousands and a doubling rate of three days, the United States is on track to have 100 million cases by May. To have any hope of mitigating spread, we now know that we need to practice aggressive social distancing. As a medical student who was scheduled to have patient practicum experiences in the hospital in the coming month, therefore, I am concerned that many medical schools still have not pulled their students from clinical rotations.
A friend at one of these schools tells me that his supervisors keep asking him why he’s there and sending him home as early as possible. It wasn’t until this week that clinical rotations were temporarily suspended at my institution, despite the fact that the Bay Area is a COVID-19 hotspot alongside New York City and Seattle. It’s especially important for schools located in areas with less aggressive COVID-19 spread to seize the opportunity to take preemptive action.
