6/20
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| Notice beauty |
I am part of “Covid19 Update” for medical professionals produced by the National Association for Continuing Education. The program is hosted by Dr. Neil Skolnik (https://www.pri-med.com/globals/faculty/s/skolnik-neil) and sharing with me Dr. Leana Wen. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leana_Wen) Dr. Skolnik sets the stage by reminding us that more than 113,000 fellow Americans have died of Covid19. More than the Korean and Vietnamese Wars combined. Twenty million jobs lost and 13% unemployment, the most since the Great Depression. In the northeast there has been a steady decline, but 21 states are now showing rises especially in hospitalizations and ICU units. Nevertheless the question is not whether to reopen, but how to reopen.
In Texas, 50% of new cases are young people in their twenties. And non-white positives are six times that of whites.
Dr. Wen reports that the ideologizing of mask use is extremely dangerous. Data shows that use of masks reduce risk by 5 times. An that masks are 80% effective. The claim that the rise in new cases is due to increased testing in testing given that the real number come from hospitalizations. The point of testing is to bring it down and combined with public health protocols and initiatives, now especially in the public transit sector does that. The principle is the Wayne Gretzky rule, focus not where the puck is but where it is going. Aymptomatic concerns are real and must continue.Of the tested, 40% have antibodies and perhaps as many as 20% if New Yorkers are antibody positive. Hydroxycloride has been tested every conceivable way and is not only not an effective treatment but may possibly weaken resistance to infection. We need to remember that the virus does not resort our wishes.
My presentation had to do with spiritual concerns. Here’s what I had to say:
These are difficult times. My topic is a spiritual perspective and I want to begin by talking about patients. What makes this different is that they are cut off from usual means of emotional and spiritual support….family, friends, clergy…they feel alone (New York is allowing hospital visits). You may be one of their only human contacts. Patients often want to know why, they need a reason. She way of making sense or believing things are not out of control. In responding, be objective…sometimes things just are. They need to know that what they feel is okay. Hard as it is, the most important thing you can do is to be present.
Now, for you. Take care of yourself. A nurse said to me, I’m not a hero, just doing my job, but I don’t want to be a martyr. Remember the airplane oxygen warning, put your own mask on first before helping others. You need to have someone you can be open with. I learned from Hospice nurses the need to feel free to dislike patients. That even if someone is dying, they can still be pain in the ass.
The most important spiritual needs are faith, hope and joy. We all have faith in something ….God, science, humanity…..some force outside of yourself. In studying depression, in the lives of Lincoln, Styron, Mother Theresa…what’s most important is feeling you are part of something bigger than yourself. Lincoln came to live with melancholia when he moved past seeing slavery as a politics issue and came to se it as a personal calling.
Hope is not optimism. Things are not getting better every way every day. Hope is to have faith in spite of the evidence and having the courage to work to make the evidence change. I think of the classic statement of Dr. King: the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice
Joy has always been the most difficult for me to get hold of. Yesterday, I walked out and one block away, there was a parade of hundreds of people with a New Orleans style street band and banners that said not only “Black Lives Matter” but “Joy is Coming.” Somehow, in the midst of pandemic, of social upheaval, of anxiety, anguish and anger…JOY!!! Morningside Park was filled with picnics and barbecues. The fact is we are always “in the midst of…,” and now more than ever.
Small things are important. Engage in projects that have nothing to do with virus …Up until Black Lives Matter, almost every conversation I was involved or overheard had do with the virus. We need other conversations. Try to notice small things…in my walks in the park, I have begun notice:
I. Birds
II. Flowers
iii. Turtles
iv. An egret
v. An itinerant trombone player
Gratitude is the foundation of resistance….Every night think, what happened today I can be thankful for? Awe and wonder are essential. For people of our professions, we are privileged to be there , to be with people at the very center of life…that is something to be thank for.
A reflection group I am part of recently reread Camus’ The Plague. I was amazed how much it was like our present moment. I was moved by the journalist who wanted escape to be with his lover. And spent his waiting time volunteering. When his time to leave came, he chose not to go. His life and taken on new meaning. Likewise the priest moved from his pace of traditional faith to a place of more uncertainty and doubt but also meaning. I close with his words:
“No, we should go forward, groping our way through the darkness, stumbling perhaps at times, and try to do what good lay in our power.”
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