Dear Fellow Physicians,
During the 2009 swine flu outbreak no one even talked about it until 1,000 American deaths when the President finally declared a national emergency. It then progressed to 5,000, 10,000 then 18,000 dead with nowhere near the hysterical, panicked overreaction we’re seeing right now. We worked through this, we took care of these patients, we lived through this. We didn’t panic or predict doom and gloom. 2 months and a countless doomsday predictions into the current outbreak, we’re at 40 COVID-19 deaths. You know what we as doctors did do back then?
We went to work, gloved up and took care of the patients. No one canceled schools, canceled the Masters, canceled leagues, mass gatherings or predicted the end of the world. Certainly no ER doctors did that I can remember. No one said, “But what about Italy?! What about China?!” No one said, “We can’t handle this.” No one made outlandish histrionic predictions like 1.5 million deaths or even 150,000 deaths and all kinds of unhelpful predictions that everyone knows are exceedingly unlikely to actually come true. No one that I know, no self respecting ER Doctor panicked like I’m seeing now. It’s pathetic. We’re supposed to be above this, calmer under pressure than the rest, not fighting people in the aisles of Costco for TP and plungers.
I don’t know what more to say, other than some people need to get themselves together. At some point, as grown men and women, we need to gather ourselves, put out heads down and go on with life, despite and through Coronavirus, which is our neighbor now, here to stay, forever, like every other virus we’ve learned to live with. We can’t go into panic-fueled hibernation forever and it’s not fair to expect those outside of Medicine that look to us for leadership to, either.
We don’t only need to move forward, we need to lead. Hearing some of you tell your families, coworkers and the public that the world is going to end is just plain unhelpful. And it’s wrong. Because as physicians and leaders (whether we like it or not) in our communities, we should know better. It’s unbecoming of people who should have the confidence that we can get through situations like this, because we’ve gone through similar things before. And if you haven’t, because you’re new to this, stop. Just stop, get out of the way, and let others lead.
If you’re a doctor and you’re still panicking about this, you need to snap out of it real quick and get it together, because your patients, families and communities need you, to. Right now, stop the doom-and-gloom Armageddon predictions and repeat this mantra to your families, your patients and yourselves, ”We’ve been through this before. We have a plan in place. We’ll get through this.” Say it, because it’s not the first nasty viral outbreak we’ve faced, and it won’t be the last. Say it, because it’s the right thing to do, and because it’s true.
