Stay Strong!

I see signs that the lock down is starting to wear at the edges of our resiliency.  As I jumped out of my car to go into the office today, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t wearing my mask till I arrived at the front door.  After having my temperature checked and answering the appropriate questions, I was given a new mask and I went up stairs.  In a recent conversation with our Chief Medical Office at the hospital he told me what he worries about more than anything is one thing, “complacency.”

On social media I have seen posts declaring that it is time to stop hunkering in our corners and face life’s challenges head on.  I understand the sentiment, I feel it too.  One in particular quoted an elderly man decrying what a weak society we now have.  When he grew up there were cases of Polio, Measles and other diseases which took a toll on his community but “we never shut down society,” he concluded.  It made me gasp a bit and wish that I could shout from the roof tops (blogging will have to do) that if this gentleman were just a little older he may have recalled the last pandemic to hit the world, the 1918 Influenza.  In the end, 500 million people were infected taking the lives of about 40 million people.  It took more lives than World War I. Society was indeed shut down at the time but perhaps not soon enough.

Our numbers at the start of our pandemic were mirroring those of the 1918 one, but as communities have come together and shut down and isolated, those projections have not been realized.  That said, the numbers continue to rise, especially here in St. Louis. We have not hit any kind of plateau yet.  It is not time to brazenly open our doors.  Twenty percent of infected individuals have no symptoms and yet are capable of passing the virus to others. Until we have universal testing, our only option is to continue to mitigate as we have been.

There is an excellent article written about Dr. Osborn at Washington University who is on the front lines pleading the same point. I was dismayed to see reports just today of more than 3000 people gathered to protest the shut down as well as our very own executive leader advocating promoting such demonstrations with encouragement to open up our society.

My partner, Dr. Voss. Stay strong so we don't have to!

The economy has been shaken to its core. I understand that makes a lot of us nervous. Our health systems are rightly concerned about our financials but I will not allow an elderly person in my office for a routine wellness exam while the numbers in our community continue to rise.  I took an oath to first “do no harm” and I intend to keep that oath.

Being brave and strong is fighting the impulse to “go back to normal.”  As health care workers, we can handle what is coming right now if everyone helps out.  We cannot let up. We must continue to stay strong!