““Hey, doc!’ one patient not yet on a ventilator — my first ICU patient with COVID-19 who was able to talk — greeted me. It was a refreshingly human interaction, briefly. Then, as I leaned over to listen to her heart – ‘cough cough hahhhkk.’ Whap. Her cough shook my face shield, spritzing swarms of virus inches from my eyes, nostrils, and open mouth.