Thread by @Neurophysik

Lessons for professional & personal life. 🧵

For life during the COVID-19 2nd wave & beyond.

1. In medical education, teach an extra course called PPD (personal & professional development) which includes medical ethics, difficult conversations about end of life, breaking bad news to family, inequality in health, conflicts & global crisis,etc...

... in my medical school in Sydney, PPD was taught interactively for two hours, about 4 times a semester. They learn about conflicts as an issue of public health. (Looking at IMA’s response to Lancet). My class discussed Rohingya. In ‘end of life’ session, nearly everyone cried

2. Have a reliable & independent scientific committee in addition to health ministry that reviews all decisions by the state & inform where evidence is against or for their policy. All departments of science should be represented & junior researchers encouraged to participate

3. Media orgs should recruit more journalists outside the arts & humanities skill set. Journalism institutes should have them undergo all types of academic projects to teach diligence & evidence collection beyond qualitative analysis

3. This is a no brainer. But only so much public funding can be allowed to test already negated results. Include all scientific research in mainstream & use the same rules for evidence review. No evidence, cut it lose. Importantly, publish the negative results.

4. Ask Qs about conflict of interest in every sphere. For any product, whether medical or otherwise. If the data is not produced & reviewed by an independent platform, other than the manufacturer, head or the investor of the company- Don’t blindly trust the research- its CoI

5. Don’t empower religious scholars & cult leaders in matters unrelated to their expertise. Religion is a way to learn patience, get hope & help each other in the community in the times of crisis. It doesn’t understand the modern advances. Limit it for what it’s meant to do.

6. Put your faith in the scientific process, if not in scientists with expertise. This “know is all” & “know it better than the expert” attitude is the reason we are in such crisis. No amount of denial will change the fact that cases are peaking despite mass consumption of altmed

7. Elect educated representatives to make decisions for you. And educated doesn’t mean just journalists, film actors or lawyers. The house seems to be full of them, and worse, the uneducated & unlearned.

8. Use subtlety for actions & to convey information. I mean please use it in every way. Turn down the loud, the hyper & the exaggerated version of your personality. Don’t consume information with that tone. Make that behaviour a social crime. Protect your eyes, ears & tongue.

9. Reconcile the knowledge from books/ education with your personal life. Don’t live with double speak. When we know that the Big Bang was a chance event in empty space, where the universe continues to expand. Don’t live thinking you are a special species on a special planet...

...you (humans) are also not the perfect “creation”. Nature is imperfect because it is based on chances to perfect a system/ Not planned to create special creatures in 1go in 7 days. Your wisdom tooth, appendix, structure of tailbone, goosebumps are vestigial for a reason.

10. Lastly, treat mythology as mythology (spoken story of the people). Stories change from one mouth to another & these scriptures are from pre-civilisation. Use it to learn history in context & its reason for success- instead of its revivalism. Most of it has lost relevance. //