In the video below, I discuss the importance of peer support for health care workers, and why I became a volunteer for the Betsy Lehman Center’s new statewide Virtual Peer Support Network.
Trained peers listen and support when times are tough.
In healthcare, exposure to sickness, dying, and death are a feature of the job. It is normal for clinicians to sometimes feel burnout, stress or suffer because of an adverse outcome, whether it’s work related, perhaps due to unexpected patient harm, or personal, such as a divorce or loss of a loved one. These feelings are are not weaknesses. They are normal parts of being a human being and speaking with someone else about it can actually help. That’s what the Betsy Lehman Center Virtual Peer Support Network program is all about, and why I’m part of it.
The Virtual Peer Support Network is a free service that connects colleagues in the Massachusetts medical community with peers who are trained to help with the difficult feelings that can accompany working on the front lines of health care. Peer supporters are volunteers who provide encouragement, support and resources to colleagues. All conversations are confidential. The Betsy Lehman Center will connect healthcare workers with a trained peer supporter who works in a similar role. For example, physicians support physicians, nurses support nurses, etc.
Individuals who want to talk to a peer supporter can complete this request form or call 617-701-8101 to reach someone at the Betsy Lehman Center.
Quick take: Positive COVID test? Act fast! COVID-19 remains a lethal pandemic. All COVID-19 positive patients should be considered for early treatment, before you get too sick. Highly effective COVID-19 medicines are now widely available. New treatments must be started within the first 5 days, so it is essential to act fast. At least 40% of Massachusetts residents qualify for early at-home treatment. New treatments reduce the risk of serious illness or death by 89%. Detailed information is available at this Massachusetts Department of Public Health website.
Who qualifies to receive early COVID-19 medications?
Adults who have mild-to-moderate COVID-19 and are within five days of symptom onset (7 days for IV medicine), and who are at high risk for serious disease qualify for these highly effective treatments.
Pediatric patients who are at least 12 years old and over 40 pounds qualify for the oral COVID-19 treatments. Infants and children 28 days and older and who weigh at least 7 pounds qualify for intravenous treatment.
Who is at high risk for progression to serious illness or death? Roughly 40% of all Massachusetts residents (more in other states). If you have any of the following conditions, you are at high risk for progression of COVID-19 to serious illness, hospitalization, or death:
Age over 65 years Overweight or obese Diabetic COPD or asthma Diseases of the heart, lung, liver or kidney Pregnant Dementia Cancer Disability Substance use disorder Mental health disorder Immunocompromised The full CDC list is here.
Clinical trials have shown Paxlovid pills reduced the risk of COVID-19 related hospitalization or death by 89% compared to placebo in individuals with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, when given within five days of symptom onset.
Paxlovid pills are currently readily available at many pharmacies including CVS and Walgreens. Urgent care centers and pharmacies with “minute clinic” clinicians can prescribe this medication, often with a telephone or video at-home consultation.
There are currently four COVID-19 treatment options available in Massachusetts today:
2 antiviral pills are available: Paxlovid (must be taken within 5 days of the first COVID-19 symptom) Molnupiravir (must be taken within 5 days of the first COVID-19 symptom)
2 intravenous (IV) treatments are available: Remdesivir, an antiviral medication (must be given within 7 days of the first COVID-19 symptom) Bebtelovimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment that helps your body fight the coronavirus (must be administered within 7 days of the first COVID-19 symptom)
A quick, easy, and free telehealth program for COVID-19 treatment is now also available in Massachusetts:
This program is available to Massachusetts residents 18 years and older who have tested positive for COVID-19, and who are experiencing mild-to-moderate symptoms. If you live in Massachusetts, simply go to this website to obtain a free video telemedicine consultation to determine if you qualify for free treatment. This program is also available in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese.
For those who do contract COVID-19, whether you are vaccinated or not, if you have even a single risk factor listed above, please talk to your physician or nurse practitioner about taking one of the highly effective medications available, which can dramatically lower your risk of hospitalization and death.
Vaccination: Unvaccinated people are much more likely to be hospitalized and die of COVID-19. Vaccination and staying up to date on COVID-19 boosters continues to be the most effective way to protect yourself against COVID-19.
An infectious disease expert recently told me, “It is not the fault of the unvaccinated that the pandemic continues. However, it is the fault of the unvaccinated when they end up intubated in the hospital ICU.”
How deadly is COVID-19?
COVID-19 was killing 10 times as many people as a bad year of the seasonal flu in 2020 -2021. (COVID-19 has resulted in roughly 500,000 deaths per year in the US in 2020 -2021 rather than 10,000 to 50,000 deaths per year typically seen in the US due to the flu). Today, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is killing five times as many people as a bad year for the seasonal flu (roughly 500 COVID-19 deaths per day in the US rather than 100 flu deaths per day due to a bad seasonal flu).
You may be through with COVID, but COVID may not be through with you.
The omicron variant of COVID-19 is not milder than the earlier versions of COVID-19. A new Harvard study concludes that fewer people are dying of COVID today due to prior vaccination or partial immunity from prior infection, not because omicron itself is mild. Omicron is deadly. Please contact your healthcare provider urgently if you test positive for COVID-19. Lifesaving treatments are available.
Monoclonal antibody therapy is an important but underused treatment for preventing severe disease and death from COVID-19.
Monoclonal antibody therapy is the best available therapy for people over 12 years of age who test positive for COVID-19 and who have risk factors for severe disease.
It reduces hospitalizations and death by 75% to 85%.
It is provided free of charge to any US resident.
Real fast take: Monoclonal antibody therapy is safe; it’s effective and it saves lives: use it!
Monoclonal Antibody Therapy:
Monoclonal antibody therapy is the most effective treatment to date to prevent patients with mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 from developing severe disease, hospitalization, ICU admission, intubation and death. Monoclonal antibody therapy reduces the number of viruses in the patient and lessens symptom severity. It has been demonstrated to reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations and death by 75% to 85%.
When administered within 10 days of onset of COVID-19 symptoms, this one-time treatment is highly effective in killing the virus, preventing symptoms from worsening, and avoiding hospitalization. When administered early, many patients report a rapid and complete resolution of symptoms.
Please remember, monoclonal antibody therapy is not a substitution for vaccination. Vaccination is still the best first line of defense against COVID-19.
What is monoclonal antibody therapy?
This medication consists of antibodies to the virus, quite similar to the antibodies that your own body makes when you are vaccinated or infected with the virus. However, the therapy gives patients an immediate boost in the number of these antibodies. These antibodies are synthesized in a lab. They do not come from other patients.
The monoclonal antibodies kill the virus early before the virus can multiply and make a patient very sick. These antibodies attack the so-called spike protein on the virus, blocking the virus from attaching to a patient’s cells. This slows the growth of the virus within the patient, while the patient’s own body revs up its own natural immunity systems.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency use authorization for monoclonal treatments for COVID-19 patients or exposed people, aged 12 and older, who are at moderate or high risk for developing severe COVID-19 disease. This includes many or most adult COVID-19 patients in the US.
Monoclonal antibody therapy involves administering a small amount of medication intravenously (into your vein) over 20 to 30 minutes, or it can be administered subcutaneously (as injections under your skin). The single treatment is followed by an hour of patient monitoring.
This therapy can be administered in an outpatient medical clinic, an emergency room, a long-term care setting such as a nursing home or even in a patient’s home.
For those who would like a more in-depth discussion of the benefits of monoclonal antibody therapy, here is the link to a one hour webinar, with 5 Massachusetts experts, which I moderated for the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association’s physician leaders on November 22, 2021.
Which patients are eligible to receive monoclonal antibody therapy?
This medication is available for use in patients who are not yet sick enough to be hospitalized and who are at an increased risk for progression to severe disease, hospitalization, and death and who are at least 12 years old.
This therapy can also be given to high-risk patients (for example, nursing home residents) who have simply been exposed to COVID-19, prior to testing positive for COVID-19. We call this prophylactic therapy.
Who is considered at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease, and therefore an ideal candidate for early treatment with this life-saving disease as an outpatient?
If you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 10 days, please contact your healthcare professional to discuss monoclonal antibody therapy. The sooner, the better.
Are there side effects to monoclonal antibody treatment?
Allergic reactions can happen with the administration of this medication, like any medication. Patients are therefore evaluated for the development of any signs of allergic reaction for one hour after this one-time treatment.
Most experts believe that these antibodies may limit your own body’s ability to develop an immune response during a subsequent COVID-19 vaccination for a brief period of time. Hence currently, it is recommended that patients delay COVID-19 vaccination for 90 days after receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. Other rare side effects can occur. Feel free to discuss this with your healthcare provider.
Do yourself a favor; do your family and friends a favor and do me a favor; if you test positive for COVID-19 and qualify for this life saving treatment, seek it out. The life you save may be your own.
Black Capped Chickadee, Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
As Vice President, Clinical Integration at the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, I have organized and moderated weekly and biweekly Zoom COVID-19 meetings with the Chief Medical Officers (the chief doctors) of Massachusetts’ leading hospitals and physician groups throughout the past year. We have hosted some of our nation’s leading genetic, vaccine and infectious disease physicians and scientists, to update us on the evolving science of COVID-19 during these meetings. I personally delivered my first Coronavirus update to this group, over one year ago, on January 29, 2020. That day, there were only 5 known cases of this deadly pandemic in the United States. The disease had not yet even been named, “COVID-19.”
We have learned much since then, some through tragic experience. There is so much factually incorrect information out there, I am writing to share the vaccine facts with you.
In March of 2020, I wrote on DefoSays.com, that experts believed that without the development of a vaccine or successful treatment, the United States would suffer approximately 1 million deaths to this disease. Many were shocked and others could not believe it. Sadly, to date, roughly ½ million Americans have died from COVID-19. The good news is we now have two astonishingly safe and effective vaccines. Today, we can finally stop playing defense and go on the offensive against this awful disease, revive our economy and get our lives back to normal.
I encourage all of you to receive the vaccine when you are eligible. As a practicing physician, I received the vaccine when it was my turn at the hospital where I work, and I didn’t feel a thing.
If we all get vaccinated, not only will we be protecting ourselves, but we will also be protecting our loved ones and our neighbors against COVID-19 and ultimately put an end to this once in 100 years pandemic catastrophe.
Vaccine risk verses risk of COVID-19:
The COVID-19 vaccine is a critical tool to protect yourself and to end the pandemic; but you might have questions about its safety. You should know:
The same safety measures used for all vaccines were followed for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Tens of thousands participated in vaccine trials to prove they are safe.
Since the vaccine trials, tens of millions of people of different races and ethnicities have gotten vaccinated and only experienced mild side effects.
When it’s your turn, trust the facts, get the “vax.”
The serious reaction rate for the two COVID-19 vaccines available in America today is 2.5 people per million patients who received the vaccine. This is similar to the common childhood and adult vaccines we have all routinely received in the US. To put that in perspective, the death rate of COVID-19 in America is at least 10,000 dead people per million patients. COVID-19 is now the number one killer in America.
The serious reaction rate to penicillin is 100 to 500 cases per million, and we don’t think twice about taking penicillin when it will help us.
According to the data from the Centers for Disease Control, (CDC), as of 2/13/2021, 27,229,862 Americans have been proven to have contracted COVID-19 and 473,669 Americans have died from it. Most experts agree this is likely an underestimate of both the number of those infected and those who have died of COVID-19. That means for every 1 million Americans known to be infected, 17,616 have died. While it is true that in the US, a significant minority of patients with COVID-19 are asymptomatic and 80% of patients with COVID-19 symptoms experience only a mild or moderate illness, yet 20% of these people suffer severe disease requiring hospitalization and oxygen therapy.
Is it logical to let the fear of an exceedingly rare serious reaction (2.5 reactions per million, none of which were fatal) keep you from receiving a lifesaving vaccine to prevent a lethal disease? (In the US, contracting COVID-19 results in:200,000 people hospitalized per million, 50,000ICU admissions for respiratory failure, shock and multi-organ dysfunction/failure per million and it continues to kill 17,616 people per million.) Vaccination will also hasten heard immunity, protecting millions of others.
Vaccine Safety:
I can personally reassure you that this vaccine has undergone rigorous testing. It has proven to be a safe and effective vaccine; remarkably so. It is more effective in preventing disease than our annual flu shots.
Both of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized vaccines are safe. Prior to FDA authorization, vaccines are required to undergo the highest level of scrutiny regarding safety, of any drug approved. This is because they are administered to otherwise healthy people, and any risk from the vaccine must be far outweighed by the potential benefit of the vaccine.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been held to the highest safety standards of the FDA. The mRNA technology utilized in both vaccines has been utilized in cancer treatment for years.
Mutant COVID-19 strains:
As of this date, the two vaccines authorized for use in the USA are effective against all known mutant strains of COVID-19, although their protection against the South African strain is somewhat reduced, in comparison to the other strains. But as long as the virus is circulating in humans, every single infection affords the virus an opportunity to mutate into a more deadly strain. We must end this terrible pandemic, and vaccination is the only way to do it. The latest information about the new variants can be found by visiting the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html
Vaccine side effects:
Just like any other medicine or vaccine, there is a chance that you will experience side effects after vaccination. These tend to be mild, and if you do experience them, they are proof that your body is building immunity. In fact, if you experience side effects to the vaccine, which does not contain the entire virus, just imagine what contracting COVID-19 would have been like.
The common mild side effects of the vaccine include pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes (in the vaccinated arm) nausea, vomiting, and fever. Younger people tend to experience these more commonly than older people, and more often after the second dose. If you are young, it might be prudent to schedule the vaccine the day before you have a day off, in case you have any side effects the next day. These side effects usually only last 24 hours.
Interestingly, just because someone has symptoms after vaccination does not mean the vaccination caused that side effect. People experience fevers, headaches, swollen glands or joint pain etc., all the time, and may experience this around the time of vaccination by random chance. While vaccination site pain will likely be due to the vaccination, the other common mild “side effects” noted above were also experienced by the placebo group in the trials 1/3 of the time, indicating that these common conditions are unrelated to the vaccination.
Pfizer mRNA vaccine
Percent of people with any symptoms: 59% after 1st dose, 70% after 2nd dose
Note: in placebo (no vaccine) group: 47% symptoms after 1st dose, 34% after 2nd
In my opinion, the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization, intubation, death, and post-infectious chronic fatigue, confusion, loss of taste and smell and pain far outweigh the minimal and transient side effects of this safe vaccine.
Vaccine distribution: Health equity has been front and center in the minds of decision makers regarding treatment and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are first distributing the vaccine to those who need it the most. Priority is being given to those who are the most likely to die if they contract COVID-19, considering medical conditions, age, race, and ethnicity.
As you can see from the CDC data below, Black, Hispanic and Native Americans are roughly twice as likely to die as white Americans, and just like the frail, and elderly; these groups should be and have been prioritized to receive the vaccines first.
Of course, when deciding about any medical treatment, you must look at the benefits, the risk of the alternative and make up your own mind.I only ask that you consider the potential lifesaving benefits of these vaccines for you, your family, and your neighbors when you are offered a chance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination is our only shot at defeating COVID-19 once and for all. I ask you to please join me in making a difference – one person at a time. Thanks.
For more information please visit the following websites:
The story of the six blind men and the elephant is an apt analogy for the perception of race relations in America. In this ancient Indian parable, six blind men came across an elephant and tried to perceive what an elephant was, only with their hands.
One blind man felt the body and stated an elephant is a wall.
Another blind man felt the leg and insisted an elephant is a tree trunk.
The third blind man felt the ear and informed his friends that an elephant is a giant flapping fan.
The forth blind man felt the trunk and argued an elephant is a large writhing snake.
The fifth blind man felt the swinging tail and concluded an elephant is a rope.
The last blind man felt the rock hard tusk and argued no, an elephant is a spear.
A wise bystander subsequently informed them all that each of them knows a truth, but only a single truth about the elephant; the entire truth can only be known, when all perspectives are heard and understood.
Prior to George Floyd’s horrible and senseless murder, I think I was in some sort of denial about the extent of racism in America. In the past, when I read about a police involved shooting where the subsequent investigation failed to result in a conviction, I was able to believe that this particular case, (and perhaps other such cases) were the result of an innocent mistaken split second judgement, not racism laid bare. George Floyd’s videotaped murder shocked the consciousness of the nation. Prior to Mr Floyd’s violent and hateful murder, I was hesitant to discuss race with my close friends of other races. Would discussing race mean admitting I see race? Of course I do, but would admitting I see race mean I was a bad person? The resultant lack of firsthand perspective limited my understanding. Since George Floyd’s murder, I have begun learning about racism from both writings and from my friends of color. I have been learning about structural racism, unconscious bias, white privilege, white supremacy, white fragility, tone policing and more.
Over the next several posts, together with my friends and colleagues, we will discuss our differing perspectives and experiences of race in America as well as offer specific prescriptions for the future. Won’t you join the conversation?
The Slow Death of Racism
by Tonya Jones (written under a pseudonym to protect her career, somewhere in America)
I am an African American female who has suffered from racism. That sentence is not surprising nor noteworthy. It would likely be remarkable if I told you I was born and raised in the United States and I had not experienced any racism. The media might have you believe that the heinous acts they now find worthy of reporting are the totality of racism’s definition. The racist acts that receive media attention which are certainly despicable and capable of daily repetition are not just the tip of the iceberg. They are merely the top slivers of ice on an iceberg large enough to sink any ocean liner.
I could tell you countless tales of actions I experienced when I worked so hard to convince myself that the action was not motivated by racism. Like the time I was 18 and the general foreman of the factory I worked at during the summer assigned me to work at a machine that required special training. The general foreman informed me the liquid I was working with was water. I later learned it was acid and by operating the machine without protective gear I could have had the acid splattered on my face as a result. Or the time I was pulled over by the police for no true reason except that I was black and leaving a predominantly white neighborhood. Or the time attorneys I worked with performed a parody of black men which they found to be amusing. These are merely examples of racism that black people experience on an all-too-frequent basis.
Every black person in America experiences the burden of racism daily. Let me state that again- every black person in America experiences the burden of racism daily. The burden may manifest itself as driving down the street and seeing a multitude of police cars when a black male is being pulled over yet only seeing one police car when the person pulled over is a white female. It may be noting the injustice when talented black peers are passed over for jobs in which they could easily excel. Racism rears its ugly head each time a black person chooses to read the news. Black people read the newspaper knowing that each racist act they read about today might have their name supplanted for the black victim du jour. I know that exemplary behavior, degrees from the most prestigious universities and professional success does not insulate me from the daily stench of racism. Racism may be experienced as feeling the ever-present need to protect your children from the same racist actions you experienced as a kid and knowing that such protection is not possible in America. While white people may read of these atrocities and sigh with despair, medical research reveals the stress black people experience because of racism raises their cortisol levels which leads to a multitude of negative health outcomes.
I find that I can only talk about racism in small doses. Yes, it tires me because I do not have a solution and I am exhausted by being expected to not only have a solution but to paradoxically refrain from talking about racism in certain settings. For me racism’s greatest challenge is that each day I experience it personally or collectively, it erodes my greatest personal asset as a human being. That asset is hope. While my hope that racism will be eliminated in my lifetime is diminishing, each time I work to call attention to its evil I realize my reserves of hope are being depleted. I will not give up because I stand on the soldiers of giants before me who suffered unspeakable pain for me. The slow death of racism will not be the victor of my last strand of hope.
Clearer Yet More Complex
by Mohamad Al-Rawi MD, MHA (written under a pseudonym as he is a Syrian refuge in asylum, somewhere in America)
Growing up in the Middle East provided me with the opportunity to look at racism and racial inequity from different angles. In Syria, and in the Middle-East in general, racism does not exist in its ‘color form,’ but as I added more years to my age, I found out that racism existed in its other forms ‘ethnic and religious’.
The dominant religion in Syria is Islam. At school, we learned early on that Islam made it clear that all humans are equal. A verse of Quran translates into: ‘‘Oh humans, we created you from a man and a woman and made you into nations and tribes so you might come to know one another. The noblest of you in the sight of god is the one who is mostly conscious about him’’. As most of the kids, I had to memorize the verse, but I did not really deeply understand what it meant. I also learned that the prophet Mohammed said: ‘‘No Arab is more favorite to a Non-Arab, and no white person is more favorite to a black person’’. In my class, I did not have kids of different color, but my best friend growing up, was a Christian young boy, Nicholas. The only thing that made me notice at the time that Nicholas was different is that he had the choice to remain in the Islamic religion class in school or to go out to play soccer while everyone else remained in class. Nicholas actually memorized the above verse and statement, among much more, as he mostly elected to remain with me in the class because we competed in getting the highest scores in all classes, and the religious class was no different. Nicholas’s situation was the first thing that opened my eyes that people could be different. This newly learned fact at the time did not really make any difference to me because my mom always taught me that some differences exist in people, but these differences do not change the fact that we are all equal; This reality sounded natural and resonated well with me.
On a macro-level, the Syrian television and governmental newspapers were full of material that spoke about the strength and unity of the different components of the Syrian nation. It also repeatedly mentioned that the United States has always wanted to destroy our nation because of our Syrian nationality, ethnicity, and religion. With the lack of transparent and accurate resources, I was not able to research the truth of what I heard on the Syrian news and my only way to verify this information and to satisfy my curiosity was to ask my mom. I realized later when I grew up that I had put my poor mom in a very difficult situation: Should she be honest with me and tell me that what I was hearing on the Syrian media was nothing but pure lies, but then risk the safety of the whole family if I made a slip and spoke to someone about it? Or should she lie to me and let me wrongly believe the Syrian regime’s lies? Just like all mothers, my mom came up with a smart third way: Wait till you get older.
As I grew older, I learned that my mom’s city, Hama, was a theater of horrific genocide that was performed by the Syrian regime in the 80s and targeted people who belonged to a certain religious group: Sunni Islam. Simultaneously as I was becoming more informed about the regime that ruled my country, bigger disapproval feelings started to develop in me towards the regime. Naturally in these situations, I started to look further into the regime’s enemy to learn more about it, therefore I started to pay more effort to learn about the United States. I found out through my careful research that the United States was more advanced than Syria almost in every important sector: economy, science, media. etc. I also learned that the US had a civil war back in the days that was ignited because of the existence of slavery at the time. I grew more and more feelings of admiration towards the US. It was clear to me that a major strength of the US was its diversity. To me, the US was a hub for people from all backgrounds, races, religions, and ethnicities. I remember my parents telling me that it was not all sweet and fuzzy as I thought and that white people in the US are still taking advantage of other people but they do it in a nicely masked way. That was something I did not really understand and was not able to verify. Then out of the blue, September 11 happened.
After 9/11, the whole world was turned upside down in the Middle -East. I started hearing more anti-Arab and anti-Muslim voices in the American media, and more anti-American voices in the Arabic media. The conflict started to get clearer but more complex to me. It was clear to me that on both sides of the world; we had a major problem of generalization and hatred, and that for the two sides to come into peace, each side might need to fix its own internal issues first. The Iraq invasion happened afterwards, and the media continued fueling the hate feelings.
I went to medical school thereafter, and I had no idea at the time that in few years the US would become my home and asylum despite, or better to say ‘regardless’ of my color, religion, or ethnicity.
Straddling two different worlds, the “model minority” myth and striving to be “white”
by Jenny S. Chiang, MD, Medical Director, MetroWest Healthcare Alliance. Inc
I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey in a blue and white Colonial style house with white shutters and a black front door. My parents emigrated from Taiwan in the mid-seventies with a wave of other graduate students in the sciences to attend university in places like the University of Texas at El Paso, where my parents met. From the outside, our house appeared like a quintessential American home; as a child I always thought it was the perfect shade of blue. Life within the home, however, was very much Chinese. I didn’t bother telling people that my family was from Taiwan because it was just too complicated to explain the political relationship to China. Even today I get asked if I speak Thai, when I say I’m Taiwanese.
We spoke Mandarin at home. We took off our shoes at the door and wore slippers in the house. We ate home cooked Chinese food with chopsticks, almost exclusively. My parents read the Chinese newspaper, and I attended Chinese language school every Sunday afternoon to learn how to read and write in Chinese. My parents only hosted parties for their Chinese friends and their families. If there was something “American” I wanted to do, like go to the movies, or buy “expensive” GAP jeans, I was always reminded we are not like them (in Mandarin, of course).
I learned quickly to straddle two different worlds. I was one of two Asian kids in elementary school and everyone would always ask if Spencer was my brother. I knew I looked different, not “American” enough, even though I was born in Syracuse, NY. In high school, one of my closest friends, who was Vietnamese, secretly admitted she wished she had blonde hair and blue eyes. To my parents, I was becoming too “Americanized”, but to my peers, I was never really American enough– we ate with sticks and didn’t speak English at home.
It wasn’t until later in life that I realized, it wasn’t that I wasn’t “American” enough, it was that I wasn’t quite “white” enough. But the biases were always present; racism in a subtler form. I confirmed the stereotype: I was good at math. And got straight As. I played the piano, and the violin. And I was taught to never challenge authority. I went to Johns Hopkins to study Biomedical Engineering. I went to medical school and became a doctor. But along the way, the weight of the “model minority” myth, only added to the perplexity of my own processing of race, class, and gender.
In Asia, skin whitening products line the cosmetic counters, umbrellas are used more for shade than rain, and Asian tourists can be notoriously identified by their large wide brimmed sun hats. My cousins in Taiwan used to laugh at the idea of people lying out on a beach to get tan. Once I was asked if I had any black friends, peaking my cousins’ curiosity about stereotypes of black culture. I had little to report, as my closest black friend, Tara, was of the same socioeconomic class and very much the nerdy academic type like me. We had AP classes together and even shared the same violin stand in orchestra for four years. She was nearly perfect, captain of the basketball team, class president, and went on to Princeton. In hindsight, I don’t think she had any other choice. She too was striving to be “white” as well.
I’ve always been proud to be an American; but also proud to be a person of color. This is not to forgive or ignore the deep wounds in our history: slavery, the Chinese Exclusion Acts, Japanese internment, Jim Crow, 9/11, and now our Black Lives Matter movement. But it is with great hope that we continue to explore what it means to be an American, and unpack the racism that is endemic across the globe. Ironically, the times in my life when I have felt the most patriotic, have been when traveling abroad. It’s that fleeting moment of confusion when I say that I’m from the US, but the equally quick acceptance that someone like me can identify as American, that highlights the diversity of our country.
It’s Time to Wake up White America, Before We Close our Eyes Forever
When I grew up in 1960s, I was taught by my parents that racism was evil and that racism was a hatred of a person due to the color of their skin. Racists disliked those who were somehow “different” and some racists hurt and even killed those who did not look or think as they did. Nazis and KKK members were clear-cut racists. They were evil. One difficulty in addressing race is that we know “racism” is evil. Yet we are not evil. Therefore we are reluctant to recognize, admit or even consider our own roles in the slow, relentless operation of the gears of “systemic racism,” and our own unconscious biases.
I was taught that racists were not only bad people, but they were lacking in imagination, for if they ever thought about how they ended up with their own skin color; they would be forced to conclude that they had nothing to do with it. If their parents were of any other race, they would have been born into that race. In fact, if their parents had been rattlesnakes, they would have been born a rattlesnake. We can claim no pride of accomplishment for what body we were born into. God (fate, destiny or karma) made that choice for us. Paraphrasing Mahatma Gandhi; unless we are prepared to call all men and women our brothers and sisters, we have no right to call God our father.
My grandparents were all immigrants (from Greece and Belgium) who had to learn English as a second language. In 1919, my grandfather arrived in America from Greece with $35 dollars in his pocket and a job offer to work in a distant copper mine in Utah. Upon arrival at Ellis Island, his name was shortened from Markos Maroupakis to Markos Maropis. Maroupakis was apparently too hard for Americans to pronounce.
Years later, Grandpa Markos was so proud that both he and his wife had become US citizens. He never missed an opportunity to vote. In fact, he dressed up in a suit and tie to vote, much to the chagrin of his wife and daughter who teased him mercilessly for this. Grandpa Markos taught me that I didn’t have to sing God Bless America, because God already had blessed America.
America had allowed my grandfather to choose his occupations (a copper mine laborer, and a builder of railroads, a waiter at Princeton University and ultimately, a licensed barber in Manhattan). For this he was always grateful until his death at age 89. I was taught that America was the land of opportunity, America was a great melting pot, from which immigrants from all over the world came to become Americans. E pluribus Unum; out of many, one. Yet America had original sin.
In school we were taught that America had a tortured history filled with territorial expansion at the expense of indigenous people, slavery, Jim Crow, poll taxes and active segregationists. But we also had heroes like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. The times were a changing in the 1960s and black Americans were beginning to achieve the civil rights denied to them for far too long.
I urge you to read (or reread) Dr, Martin Luther King Junior’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. This letter is incredible in its moral clarity, brilliance and poetic eloquence. It is as apropos today as it was in April of 1963.
As a white friend and colleague of mine recently remarked, after listening to the heart-rending experiences of a black woman growing up in America, “It stuns me how little I really know about the suffering of others.” As a first step, let’s try to truly listen to one another.
We will share more in the months to come, in the meantime, be well and stay safe my friends.
Some people ask if it is too late to start practicing physical distancing and pandemic hygiene (as detailed in this post).
There is a Buddhist saying which paraphrased advises:
Don’t worry about the past, there is not a thing you can do to change it.
Don’t worry about the future, your feared outcome may never arrive.
Make the most of the present, it is all we ever have.
We owe it to each other to social distance, not for ourselves, but to save the life of someone who we may never meet, a stranger on the street. (And, oh, by the way, it might just save your own life too.)
Flattening the curve not only postpones or eliminates the need to make painful decisions about who can obtain lifesaving care and who cannot, but it will keep our healthcare system up and running for the rest of us who may need a baby delivered, a broken bone repaired or a life saving coronary artery angioplasty during a heart attack.
Do your part to remain physically distant from others and encourage others to do the same. And please ignore the advice that meeting in small groups under some arbitrary number (such as ten) is okay. Until the virus announces it has learned to count and will not infect those in such small groups, we need to completely stop spreading it around.
Please enjoy this poignant link which beautifully underscores the above message.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_tEdQvFcc
(If the above link breaks, please search: YouTube Coronavirus Rhapsody. It’s worth it.)
Covid-19 is unequivocally more widespread than you have been told.
The true incidence of Covid-19 in MA, (where I am a local expert) and nationwide is woefully under-reported. This is due to the fact that until a government lab tests a case as positive, it is not reported on the otherwise excellent websites such as Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 case counts by country and county.
I have spoken to many MA radiologists who have diagnosed patients with Covid-19 pneumonia, yet the state numbers will not include their patient. These patients’ state laboratory test results are not yet available (as there have not been enough test kits and the lab takes more than 48 hours to turn around results due to high volume).
Experience has taught us that for every hospitalized patient we know about, there are four more in the community who are not reported in the numbers.
Between you and I, one of us is likely to contract Covid-19 within the next 12 months:
While no one knows for sure, it is possible, even probable, based on the evidence to date that most of us will likely contract Covid-19, despite our best efforts. The Prime Minister of Germany, Angela Merkel recently warned that 70% of German citizens might contract Covid-19. Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch suggested between 40% and 70% of the world’s population will likely contract Covid-19. It is however critical that we delay that eventuality as discussed below.
When we get sick this will be the result:
Based on the experience in Asia and Europe for roughly 80% of us, the symptoms will range from a mild cold to a bad case of the flu, all of which can be treated in the privacy and comfort of our own homes. However, for those of us over 60 years old, and those of us with chronic diseases such as emphysema, diabetes or high blood pressure, we may need hospitalization or even treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). Covid-19 will kill some of us, most commonly (but not exclusively) those who will die will be older, frailer and sicker patients to begin with.
It has been reported in China that for those patients younger than 30 years of age, the death rate was 0%. The news was worse for older patients. The death rate was reported to be 7.2 percent for patients over 79 years of age. According to that report, slightly less than 1% of all Covid-19 patients with the virus died there. The only good news is that this means over 99% survived.
The math is brutal: If millions of patients required intensive care at the same time, there simply isn’t enough care to go around:
Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before congress that the mortality rate for Covid-19 may be 1%. Hence without drastic measures, Covid-19 may kill 1 million Americans.
For patients with severe Covid-19, hospital care or ICU care can be lifesaving. There are roughly 328 Million residents living in the USA. If only 50% of us contract Covid-19, 164 million patients will fall ill. If 20% of these patients require hospitalization, 32.8 million patients would require a hospital bed. Yet there are less than 1 million hospital beds in America (924,100 hospital bed in the USA). There are only 160,000 ventilators to help patients with pneumonia breath. We have less than 100,000 ICU beds.
You Can Save a Life (Maybe Your Own)
Therefore we must slow the rate of progression of this potentially catastrophic, once in 100 years pandemic:
If the rate of spread of Covid-19 is slow enough, we can “flatten the curve.” 164 million Americans may still contract Covid-19, but if they do so slowly, over time, then there will be enough care to treat the sickest of us, as in the diagram below:
Source: “Flattening the Coronavirus Curve: One chart explains why slowing the spread of the infection is nearly as important as stopping it.”
What your community can do to slow the rage of spread:
Cancel all non-life-saving public meetings: This includes sporting events, classes, religious services, concerts, schools, libraries etc.”
As much as possible, workers should be encouraged to work remotely from home. Face to face meetings should be converted to phone calls, conference calls or webinars.
Business owners, community organizations and government should clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces more often. They must also provide adequate supplies of hand hygiene supplies at multiple convenient locations.
By limiting the opportunity for the virus to spread, we are flattening the curve.
Reason for optimism:
During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, an estimated 50 million people perished worldwide. That is more than the 40 million deaths due to WW1. However, pioneers of social distancing in 1918 proved we could flatten the curve. In 1918, the mayor of Philadelphia threw a parade to support the war effort. 200,000 people lined the streets to watch. Within three days, every hospital bed in Philadelphia was full of sick and dying flu patients. 4,500 Philadelphia residents died that week alone.
In contrast in St. Louis, a similar sized Midwestern city rigorously began practiced social distancing. Just two days after their first civilian influenza death, the mayor of St. Louis closed all churches, courtrooms, libraries, playgrounds and schools etc. They didn’t throw a parade; they banned all public groups of over 20 people. Their death rate was only half of that of Philadelphia.
Source: “This chart of the 1918 Spanish flu shows why social distancing works”
What you and I can do? Employ social distancing and rigorous hand hygiene:
Practice social distancing now:
· Support school closures and postponement of public meetings
· Telecommute
· Convert in person meeting to calls or webinars
· Cancel family get-togethers, parties, wedding ceremonies (you can still get married, but hold the public ceremony and reception a year from now, once the pandemic is behind us).
· Keep a two week supply of medications, groceries, and household items on hand, in case you are quarantined.
· Check in on neighborhood shut-ins by phone.
· Share your supplies if needed.
Practice pandemic hygiene:
· Don’t go to work (or out) when sick.
· If you need to see a physician, call ahead first.
· Cover coughs and sneezes with your elbow or a tissue, and throw the tissue in the trash.
· Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
· Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
· Get plenty of sleep.
· Exercise.
· Stay hydrated.
· Eat well.
· Don’t shake hands. (Don’t touch their sleeves instead; this is where they have been coughing.)
· A respectful bow while uttering “social distancing” sets a good example.
Be compassionate: Social distancing and a focus on hygiene will help flatten the curve.
The ICU bed you help save may someday be your own.
The
unending string of mass shootings, followed by the increasingly
banal, sterile and hypocritical comments regarding, “thoughts and
prayers,” must cease. The near uniform outrage and grief over mass
shootings and daily urban shootings can be transformed into the basis
for shared responsible action today.
Currently,
the federal Brady
Act mandates that federally licensed
firearm dealers check the background of gun purchasers, to ensure
they are not convicted felons, domestic partner abusers, fugitives or
dangerously mentally ill. However, individuals participating in the
private sale of guns, including those at gun shows, are not required
to conduct such background checks. This is the so called “gun show
loophole.”
The
US public has reached consensus, yet to date, our political leaders
fail to act. Preventable murders (including the shootings of innocent
bystander children) across America have not been mitigated by closing
the gun show loop hole.
Today
unregistered firearm dealers can go to a gun show, purchase unlimited
firearms, then turn around and sell a wheelbarrow full of
Saturday-night specials to convicted criminals without a background
check! Why would anyone support allowing this loophole to persist?
88%
of Americans favor a federal law requiring a universal background
checks for all gun purchases.
72%
of National Rifle Association (NRA) members support this position.
This senseless bloodshed will be curtailed, when we are willing to take courage in both hands, work across the aisle and finally pass a national law requiring universal background checks for all gun purchasers. In a 2015 poll, 83% of Americans favored a federal law requiring universal background checks for all gun purchases. 72% of National Rifle Association (NRA) members support this position. Passing such a bill is not political suicide; it is a path to statesmanship.
In fact, in 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research confirmed even greater support for universal background checks. Today, 88% of the US public supports universal background checks prior to firearm purchases.
Some
states have a closed the gun show loophole on their own. These states
are 30%
less likely to export guns to criminals in
other states for use in a crime.
We
must not allow anyone to use the second amendment or firearm violence
as a political wedge issue to divide us. Regardless of what we are
told by the talking heads on the competing cable news networks, our
shared human experiences are similar. Our core values are nearly all
the same. What binds us together as fellow human beings is far
greater than our differences. Who does not weep at the loss of a
loved one? Who doesn’t feel the need to protect an innocent child?
Together we are all pilgrims on the same journey.
There is no gap
separating gun owners from non-gun owners in their support for
closing the gun show loophole. Data
proves it. Our political leaders, on all
sides of the political spectrum can and should support their
constituents. Close the gun show loop hole now, once and for all.
The Medical Community Must Speak Out Against This Atrocity
This week, President Trump vetoed bipartisan legislation which would have halted the sale of $8,000,000,000.00 worth of arms to Saudi Arabia. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that US bombs and assistance have been used by the Saudis to destroy hospitals, as they wage a proxy war against Iran through the civil war in Yemen.
In February of 2009, The French medical aid society, Médecins sans Frontières reported that their facilities had been bombed five times by Saudi led coalition airstrikes since March 2015, despite the fact that they were clearly marked, and their GPS coordinates had been shared with the Saudis. Given the current lack of healthcare infrastructure in Yemen, these volunteer physicians and healthcare workers in are all the more critical.
Amir M. Mohareb, M.D., and Louise C. Ivers, M.D., M.P.H., D.T.M.&H. have noted in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Although the human toll of any war is dreadful, the infliction of suffering in Yemen has particularly toxic characteristics that we believe demand attention from health care providers worldwide: the destruction of health care facilities and the spread of disease and hunger as apparent means of waging war.”
US medical leaders ought to speak out with one voice: US arms should be tethered to the requirement that the recipient of such lethal weapons comply with the international law.
While our collective attention is temporarily refocused on the Saudi arm sales, US medical leaders ought to speak out with one voice: US arms (and assistance, including inflight refueling) should be tethered to the requirement that the recipient of such lethal weapons comply with the international law. The intentional bombing of hospitals and healthcare clinics and the interference with medical personnel attending to patients is strictly prohibited under the fourth Geneva Convention. Unless we so insist, we are all morally complicit in Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemeni healthcare facilities. This is particularly true as the USA is part of the international coalition supporting the Saudis, along with the United Arab Emirates and France.
Utilizing cholera, malnutrition and starvation to achieve military gain is immoral, illegal and cannot be tolerated or assisted by the United States of America.
Due to incredible complexity of the region and the law of unintended consequences, one should acknowledge the limited extent to which we can predict the long term consequences of our actions or inactions in this conflict. Neither side is proposing a Jeffersonian democracy, civil rights and prosperity. Even Nostradamus himself might be unable to prognosticate what the long term effects of any foreign policy decision in the region might be. But one doesn’t need to know the best way to end this horrible war to be absolutely certain that bombing hospitals, preventing healthcare supplies from reaching their intended patients and utilizing cholera, malnutrition and starvation to achieve military gain is immoral, illegal and cannot be tolerated or assisted by the United States of America.
After an entire generation has grown up intermittently hearing about our forever wars in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and now Yemen and Niger, we have become numb to the horror.
Background:
The Houthi rebels, a long repressed Shiite sect, captured Yemen’s capital Sana, and much of the country in 2015 from the ruling minority, who happen to be Sunnis, and who some viewed as a Saudi puppet regime. Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad bin Salman reacted to the Houthi’s military victory by ordering Saudi Arabia forces into the civil war in Yemen, in 2015, expecting a swift military victory.
While it is been said that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, Mohammad bin Salman should have known the same can be said for Yemen. Yemen’s unique geography as well as the fierce independence of its population has kept outside empires from subjugating the country throughout history. In fact the Ottoman Empire was halted at their border.
Bringing about a rapid peaceful negotiated solution in Yemen might be beyond our sphere of influence. What’s within our control is insisting that our weapons are not used in violation of international law.
It should be noted that locals might disagree with the prewar description of Yemen as that of a large Shiite majority being subjected to a small Sunni minority government. Unlike in many other Middle East nations, there is often intermarrying between Sunni and Shiite Yemeni residents. Hence the Yemen civil war often pits family members against each other.
The path forward:
Bringing about a rapid peaceful negotiated solution in Yemen might be beyond our sphere of influence. What’s within our control is insisting that our weapons are not used in violation of international law. We must adhere to our shared moral values and require our allies to adhere to (at a minimum) the Geneva Convention, prior to allowing any more bombs which say, “Made in America,” into this field of conflict.
Mr. President, please insist that any military assistance we offer is predicated on the prohibition of bombing hospitals or impeding the flow of medical care of the citizens of Yemen.
If we don’t take courage in both hands, draw a bright redline and take a firm stand now, the tactic of bombing hospitals whose GPS coordinates have been clearly shared with the opposition (which the Russians have also employed in Syrian) will become the de facto status quo across the globe.
We implore you Mr. President, please insist that US made Saudi weapons and any associated military we assistance we offer are predicated on the prohibition of bombing hospitals or impeding the flow of medical care of the citizens of Yemen.
While the causes of physician burnout (and clinician burnout more generally) are multifactorial, inefficient electronic medical records (EHRs) and their associated disrupted workflows consistently top the list of the main drivers of physician burnout. Atul Gawande wrote an eloquent piece on the subject entitled, Why doctors Hate Their Computers, in which Dr. Gawande notes “I’ve come to feel that a system that promised to increase my mastery over my work has, instead, increased my work’s mastery over me.”
There are EHR optimization pearls your organization can take.
But there are practical EHR optimization pearls any organization can take to reduce administrivia driven burnout. Last week, I co-authored a paper for the Joint Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) – Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Task Force on Physician Burnout in partnership with the Reliant Medical Group: Changing the EHR from a Liability to an Asset to Reduce Physician Burnout.
This paper includes more than a dozen electronic health record (EHR) optimization techniques organizations can take today to improve the usability of the EHR as well as its associated workflows, in order to reduce unnecessary administrative burden for physicians and other clinicians.
Our message is that there are many interventions compassionate leaders can take today to help mitigate the drivers of clinician burnout. We would be happy to hear what has worked for you.
