1/ Thanks, @nassefi, and thanks, @edyong209 for writing this. My husband @GrantWahl showed me the piece this morning. I'm still processing my feelings about this. We the #COVID #coronavirus pandemic experts, we are most definitely not OK.
2/ The Great American #COVID #Coronavirus Pandemic is a story of squandered time and opportunity. We should have implemented strict stay-at-home orders more quickly. We needed to “flatten the curve” to protect our health system, & suppress community transmission…
3/ ...& meanwhile, prepare for the “new normal” by scaling up capacity to test, contact trace, & isolate… & educating the public about the need to wear masks & remain 6 feet apart from people outside the household bubble.
4/ We’ve been saying this for months, until we’re blue in the face. No, it’s not public health vs the economy. There is no economy without public health. But too few have listened. Instead, they shoot the messenger, because we don’t tell them what they (& we!) wish were true.
5/ We’re suffering from massive moral injury… transgressions of our most strongly held professional values.
6/ We don’t do media interviews to be famous. We go on TV to bear witness because we see no other way. As women & POC, we bear witness in ways the old guys can’t... because they don’t see & experience what we do. When we get bumped for the old guy? That's another injury.
7/ We’re the ones in the hospital, caring for these patients. We’re being put at risk because our wards are full… because we’re having to reuse PPE... because it's impossible to have good infection control when you've got that many #COVID #coronavirus patients.
8/ Our government has given up. Corporate medical systems worry about PR & wealthy donors, not about the staff & the patients. Hospital leaders abandon us as they flee to save themselves. businessinsider.com/nyc-hospital-l… We’ve been left to fight this alone.
9/ We’re tired of seeing the world’s “best” healthcare system fail its patients time and time again, not just with #COVID, but with so much else. The majority of my patients are sick because they don’t have housing, food, an education, or a job that pays a living wage & is safe.
10/ But our healthcare system is powerless to fix any of that.
11/ There isn’t a day I don’t get profanity-laden, misogynistic emails (the c- & b- words are favorites) & dudes trying to hit on me via FB / Twitter / LinkedIn (!). The emails are actually the easiest to shrug off. No CNN-hater would watch CNN 24/7 unless they were a paid troll.
12/ I am exhausted. I haven’t taken a day off since February. I’ve only left our NYC apartment twice since March for anything except to walk to work at the hospital. The rest of the time? I’ve been on lockdown at home… just like so many others.
13/ I don’t know when I’ll get to see my mom & sister & her family, who’re all in Houston, a current #COVID epicenter. I don’t know when @GrantWahl & I will be able to visit his father at his memory care facility in AZ, another COVID hotspot.
14/ We’re assuming we won’t be celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas with my 5- and 1-year-old nieces this year. No, this isn’t fun for us. We're not special. Many Americans are facing much the same right now.
15/ But as tired as I am, this isn't the time for a break. What we're facing is just too urgent. Call it a duty, a mission, a calling. We're needed everywhere right now: in the hospital, in the lab, in the community, in the media. And so, we keep doing it all. //
