QUARANTINE BLOG # 192

October 8, 2020

I read this powerful article yesterday .  Feel free to share it.  The link to the original is included.

If You Don’t Want to Wear a Mask, Come to Work with Me

Gregory Jasani, MD

Physician

I am an emergency medicine physician in an inner-city emergency department, and I would like to start by stating a simple truth: coronavirus is not going away any time soon.  Cases are climbing in practically every state and show no signs of slowing down.  From my personal perspective, things are getting worse.  Every day I am treating more and more patients who are ill with COVID-19 infections.  

Given the spiraling case numbers, I find the refusal of some people to wear masks completely baffling.  Yet I know the idea of wearing a mask stirs up a strong, visceral reaction in many who feel their personal freedoms are being curtailed.  Maybe you, reading this now, are one of these individuals.  If that is the case, I have a simple offer: please come to work with me.

In my emergency department on a typical day, you will see the very real and sometimes deadly consequences of coronavirus infections.  You will watch as patients, some of them otherwise healthy, engage in a terrifying struggle to breathe.  You can also watch as I intubate some of these patients and place them on a ventilator, then pray that my intensive care unit has a bed available.  You can listen as I tell patients they have coronavirus, and you can stand there silently while I hold their hand as they cry.  

Do you think wearing a mask in your grocery store is unpleasant? If so, then wearing a gown, an N95 surgical mask, two sets of gloves, and face shield into every patient’s room will be really uncomfortable for you.  I won’t even mention to you that, even with all of that on, you are still over three times more likely than the general public to catch coronavirus by working in a hospital.

You may view wearing a mask as an infringement on your civil liberties, but for those of us in healthcare, it is a numbers game.  Every person who refuses to practice basic preventive measures such as social distancing and wearing a mask increases the transmission of the virus.  More transmission means more cases.  Admittedly, the majority of those infected will only have mild symptoms and recover.  Sadly, that’s not true for everyone, and I have unfortunately borne witness to that.  

Remember, those of us who work in the emergency department will be called upon to care for every single one of those who become critically ill with COVID-19 infections.  We don’t have the option of refusing to treat these patients the way you have the option of refusing to wear a mask.  To put it another way, we don’t have the “freedom” to keep ourselves safe, even though you have the “freedom” to endanger us.

Masks work.  There is solid data from the CDC showing that masks drastically decrease transmission of the virus.  Given that people can transmit the virus while otherwise appearing completely healthy, it is paramount that everyone wears a mask.  In fact, counties with mask mandates are seeing cases drop.  Those without are, predictably, experiencing surges in cases.

To me, refusing to wear a mask is unacceptable.  By not wearing a mask in public, you are helping to transmit a deadly virus. Your actions are condemning countless people to serious illness and possibly death. You feel your freedom is being limited by wearing a mask?  With freedom comes responsibility, and also consequences.  If you insist on refusing to wear a mask, then at least have the courage to come see the consequences of your choices.  Please come to work with me and see things from my perspective.  Wearing a mask in public will seem a pretty small inconvenience after you do.

👉  In other news, Royal Caribbean announced that all cruises in the brand have been postponed until December 1.  Seabourn Cruises has paused three cruise ships in its fleets: January 15, April 18, May 28.  Azamara has paused European cruises in a staggered schedule of March, April, and May 2021.  Your favorite bloggers had a cruise scheduled on Celebrity Equinox scheduled to leave November 27 for 12 days in the Caribbean.  Even though the cruise industry has announced screening for all guests and crew, many nations are still not ready to receive day tripping visitors.

👉  Do you remember the line in Independence Day when it is revealed that there really is an Area 51 and alien studies?  Talking about how it got financed, Julius Levinson (played by Judd Hirsch) says, “You don’t actually think they spent $20,000 for on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat do you?”  Here’s the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdmH47VNiS4.

Well, life imitates art.  NASA’s has new space potty – a $23 million titanium toilet better suited for women.  It will be tested at the International Space Station before eventually flying to the moon.  Barely 100 pounds and just 28 inches tall, the new toilet is roughly half as big as the two Russian-built ones at the space station.  It’s more camper-size to fit into the NASA Orion capsules that will carry astronauts to the moon in a few years.  Station residents will test it out for a few months.  If the shakedown goes well, the toilet will be open for regular business.

The new shape should help astronauts position themselves better for No. 2, said Johnson Space Center’s Melissa McKinley, the project manager.  “Cleaning up a mess is a big deal. We don’t want any misses or escapes,” she said.  Let’s just say everything floats in weightlessness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p13yZAjhU0M.

👉  Kennedy Martin is a 13 year old girl with many friends at Macedonia.  She has been battling cancer for several years and her Mom said that Tuesday night was particularly bad and for the first time since she was diagnosed, she asked her mother, “Am I going to die?”  Mrs. Martin said, “No 13 year old should have to ask that question.  I ask you prayer warriors to please pray that God will continue to give her peace that passes all understanding and the strength to keep fighting.  It is only with Him that we make it through each day.”

As a grandparent who has watched his own children grow through their teenage years and now with grandchildren older than 13, and some yet to reach that age, my heart hurts for the Martin family.  Some of you who read this blog know Kennedy, to many of you, this is your introduction to her.  Please pray for Kennedy and her family.  I cannot begin to understand their pain, but I know Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals.

👉  God first revealed Himself as Jehovah Rapha to the Israelites after their exodus out of Egypt.  After three days of wandering in the Desert of Shur, the Israelites were in desperate need of water.  They discovered a river, however the waters were unfit to drink.  As a reflection of the quality of the water and their emotional disposition, the Israelites named the river “Mahra” (bitter).

God cleansed the waters by instructing Moses to throw a piece of wood into the water, thereby making it drinkable.  Following this miracle, God declared Himself as Jehovah Rapha to His people by proclaiming, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26 NIV).

God’s tremendous healing power as Jehovah-Rapha combats sickness and infirmity  (Psalm 41:3), healing from mental affliction (Jonah 2:5-7), spiritual fatigue  (Psalm 23:3), emotional suffering  (Psalm 147:3), anxiety or worry (John 14:27).

Our God “forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3).  “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).

Trust in the Great Physician.

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