Sadness and Sacrifice in the COVID 19 Era

Sadness and Sacrifice.....for a world saving cause.

Another day at the office. Wearing a mask has it's setbacks. You cannot sip your Tim Horton's coffee if you are wearing a mask. These masks are precious. I won't take it off until I have seen the handful of patients who have presented today for face to face visits. Patients with symptoms that might suggest COVID 19 are screened over the phone and if they have a new cough, fever, travel history, difficulty catching their breath, they are sent to the COVID 19 clinic for screening and possible testing. Everyone else is receiving consultations using various telecommunication methods. But, that 3 year old with ear pain and that mother who is 17 weeks pregnant, that 65 year old who just had a brain tumour removed...they all need in office appointments. They wear a mask and I wear a mask. Note to self, sip that coffee before the mask is put on.

Today, I felt this huge rush of hope and a surge of renewed energy. It made me realize how troubled I have been, how deeply worried. That hope came from firm and unequivocal government orders telling us to stay home. This is your job while the front line healthcare workers manage the sick and test as many people as we can. This is your job while the scientific community works towards creating an effective vaccine and this is your job while governments figure out how to protect the citizens of this country both from the virus and from the economic toll of shutting down an entire work force and education system.

Several Asian countries who were hit very hard are now recovering and loosening their social distancing rules. They are recovering because they fought hard at the beginning. They put draconian measures in place to keep people apart and they enforced them. This bought them time to test as many people as they could. Now, they are in a phase of sending people back to work and school because they can focus on isolating only those that test positive. While you stay home, preventing further spread of the disease, we will test as many people as possible. It's a two pronged approach: social distancing and massive testing. Give us time to get those test kits and the resources we need to test as many people as we can. Give us time by staying home and halting further spread of the virus. Your government, your healthcare workers and your scientist have a job to do and we can't do it without your help.

If you do this, we will be locked in for weeks, not months and we will get more and more of our freedoms back. Our governments ( provincial and federal) are following the science. Have faith in them and follow them.

In the last 10 days this country has tested 10,000 people/ day. You will see the number of infections go up as these results come in. Don't be alarmed. This is the beginning of a brilliant strategic plan.

The role you play in this plan?

In the words of our brilliant Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, we must practise, "unrelenting social distance".

STAY HOME!

DR. Anne-Marie Zajdlik