“It’s almost impossible to describe to those who don’t work in our environment the level of death and despair that nurses and other frontline healthcare workers have been witness to over the past 18 months.” — Beth Wathen, MSN, RN, president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, on how the COVID pandemic has affected the workforce.

“I would now add unvaccinated status as a risk factor for long COVID.” — David H. Jiang of the Mayo Clinic, discussing his group’s new review on lingering health problems in COVID-19 survivors.

“The person who’s talking to you in the exam room is a powerful voice. And it can be a voice for good, or it can plant doubts in your mind.” — Jeanne Steinbronn Sheffield, MD, of Johns Hopkins, discussing the ability of physicians to sway pregnant women on COVID-19 vaccination.

“Acute demyelinating events after vaccination are extremely rare and causality is always very difficult to establish.” — Robert Bermel, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, about a case of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis occurring after a young woman was vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.

“It’s moments like that, that just were beautiful.” — Laura Weiss, RN, a retired nurse who joined the effort to administer COVID-19 vaccines, on giving the shot to a patient who cried with happiness.

“The SURE-PD3 trial tested a compelling hypothesis that raising brain levels of a natural antioxidant, urate, slows progression of the disease.” — Michael Schwarzschild, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, who led a phase III trial on the urate precursor inosine in early Parkinson’s disease.