VT Works

I get it. This is serious.

For the last few weeks, talk of COVID-19 has dominated the airwaves, lunchrooms, and travel plans. We’ve seen Italy close it’s borders, cruise ships hold hostage its patrons for weeks of quarantine, and we’ve even seen Costco completely run out water and toilet paper – the latter of which still baffles me. We’ve seen world famous Music and Arts Festival “South by Southwest” in Austin, TX cancelled for the first time in decades, sports teams are considering the prospect of playing games without fans in the seats, and we’ve seen airline prices plummet to 20th Century levels. As an aside, if you’re considering travelling in the next six months, buy your tickets now while prices remain at bargain basement levels. And then there’s social media.

Oh, social media.

You don’t need me to remind you social media has been dominated by COVID-19. I’ve read opinions varying from this will cause little more than “flu like symptoms” for a generally healthy individual, to it may be the 21st Century’s version of the bubonic plague. It’s hard to know where the truth lies, but as with most things like this these days, it’s likely buried somewhere in the middle. Facts like 96% of those who have contracted the virus have already recovered, and most of the fatalities have been people with some existing respiratory condition, or an immuno-compromised individual. Facts like most of the infections are mildly “flu-like” and much of the fatality rate in China was as affected by poor access to medical care as much it was the virus itself. Somehow these facts seem less sexy, though, and thus inconvenient to the fear mongering folks. So they are buried under jargon.

In my life, I’ve been through a few natural disasters. I was a teenager when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Francisco in 1989, we were forced to evacuate due to fires in San Diego in 2003, I was in Houston for Hurricane Ike in 2008, I was in Austin for the massive flooding in 2015, and I’ve had a few brushes with a tornado or two. And just so you know, looking back, I’d take an earthquake over the other natural disasters any day of the week. In all those times, whether in the anticipation of a serious hurricane or the aftermath of an earthquake, the level of fear and anxiety was a day at the beach by comparison to what I’ve observed with COVID-19. On the one hand we have doctors saying to “live your life”, and on the other, social media portrays this situation as armageddon-esk.

If you look at the history of other viruses which were referred to as “pandemic”, you may recall the swine flu – sometimes referred to as H1N1 – which visited us in 2009-2010. At the time, estimates were the then new flu strain would be a global killer; or at the very least, would probably wipe out half the globe’s population. Now, some ten years later, most of us are still here and we know roughly 100 million people were sickened by the virus, with some 75,000 of those cases proving fatal. Mathematically, this comes to 0.00075% mortality rate. Just for frame of reference, the more common flu, Influenza A and B, carry a mortality rate of 0.1% annually. The difference this time around seems to be in the unknown. People are not sure what will happen if they contract this virus and that uncertainty fuels the fire, fans the flames, and before we know it people are fist fighting over toilet paper in Costco. Harvard University is asking it’s students to move out, Rice University has closed its doors for a month, and UCLA is converting its lessons to the online variety. The National Guard has been mobilized in New York, Stanford Hospital is on lock down, and the stock market maintains all the stability of a mosquito flying through a dust storm. Some markets are finding odd ways to take advantage of the situation, though. You may be amused to learn in perusing Netflix last night, I couldn’t help but smirk a bit when Outbreak and Pandemic crossed my screen under the “suggested for you” section. I guess capitalism marches on.

With any luck, this will all disappear within a month or two. Most elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in my area have closed for two weeks waiting for it to pass. Hopefully, then we can go back to shaking hands, giving hugs, and graciously passing through each other’s personal space while not fighting over toilet paper. Until that time, though, we are best served to wash our hands often, keep our hands away from our face, and to be aware of our surroundings; practices which hopefully are not new to most of us.

In our office, we have added the step of escorting our patients to a sink while they wash their hands before entering our VT room. That, and trying to help the younger ones understand this madness, which at times, can be hard to make sense of ourselves.

For those of you so inclined, an Epidemiologist friend of my family recommended this site to us, as it does a nice job of removing the emotion from the equation and simply looks at the stats. I share it with you in hopes of easing fears and sharing facts.

As a final thought, I received an email recently, as I’m sure most of you did, indicating COVD is monitoring the situation and considering how to best manage the upcoming Annual Meeting. They have a difficult decision ahead and will surely handle it in a manner befitting to their held elected office. No matter where that decision lands, be it to continue on, postpone, and/or to cancel, my hope is that whether you agree or disagree, all of us in the community treat their decision with the deserved grace and respect.

Be well, friends.