Like the pandemic, uncertainty, growing confidence, and the return of doubt come in waves. The Omicron variant is just the latest twist in this plot.

Empathy does not need to dissipate as we endure medical training. Both the pandemic and the national reckoning over racial injustice and police brutality have touched every aspect of life as we know it, and medical training and education have been no exception.

Every summer, our household lives through “the July effect.” The mate, an internist, spends extra time at teaching rounds with his brand new residents, hoping they will beat the odds and not hurt patients disproportionately with their greenness. Our son, now 10, tightens his bike helmet a little ...