My cousin Sharon sent this to me. She knows the entire family.
Long post and angry rant warning:
Hi friends. I'm going
to take a break from social media for a while. I've been very disturbed to see
so much terrible misinformation about Covid, and it's really distressing me. In
the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, where I am working in a regional
hospital, the number of covid cases is rapidly on the rise (as predicted and
anticipated by epidemiologists and public health experts). There is a
corresponding rise in very sick covid patients in the hospital (both in the
designated Covid ward and in the ICU). The curve is on the rise, and if we
don't do something, I hate to imagine what going to work is going to feel like.
I work as a Palliative
care doctor. I've had people ask me why I would worry about Covid when my
patients are going to die anyway. Can you imagine? My patients potentially have
months of life left, which they would like to spend as comfortably as possible
with family and loved ones. Instead, because many of the broader community has
not followed the advice of public health officials and cases are on the rise,
these people are spending the most difficult part of their lives largely
isolated, with severe visitor restrictions. Many chose to avoid medical care,
and consequently suffer physically. Covid has also directly affected some of my
patients who got to spend the last moments of their lives isolated as they died
from a potentially preventable infection.
I am so angry with
people who produce false and misleading information about this pandemic. I am
so angry with people who openly flaunt the advice of public health officials by
refusing to wear a mask or put any effort into social distancing. It really
pisses me off when people act like they are big heroes or so smart... that they
aren't sheeple like the rest of us who happen to take the advice of real
experts who have devoted their lives and careers to understanding things like
pandemics. That they have the gall to think they can be presented with complex
epidemiological data and make sense of it. That they cherry-pick information
from a very small minority of doctors that suits their paradigm. I can't believe
that for many, the most likely scenario here is that this is all part of some
grand conspiracy to control the masses, and so they engage in behaviour that
endangers their communities, their loved ones, and themselves. I am connected
to a lot of doctors and nurses, and I don't know any who aren't losing sleep
over this. I don't know any that are psychopaths engaged in some sort of
bizarre conspiracy with the governments of literally every country in the
world.
Because of the willful
ignorance of many people out there, and because they are so selfish they can't
be bothered to do the right thing, my vulnerable patients suffer. Vulnerable
people in nursing homes suffer. Vulnerable people in our community suffer. Our
hospitals are already becoming overwhelmed, and it is only bound to get worse.
There will not be enough ICU beds or staff to care for the very sick. That
doesn't just mean sick covid patients... that means if you or a loved one has a
heart attack, or is in a car accident, or becomes septic, they may not get the
care they need. It means that elective procedures (things like removing
cancerous tumours or performing colonoscopies to detect cancer early, or my
daughter's eye surgery to preserve her vision), will be postponed, and people
will suffer. It also means that small businesses and families will suffer once
again as lockdowns take place to flatten the curve.
My colleagues and I in
the Fraser Valley are just starting to see the tsunami coming. People I know in
other parts of the country/world are in the midst of it. It is time to change
our behaviour now. Do the right thing. Care about your fellow humans. Care about
my sister and me who are in the hospital. Stop pretending you are ignoring
public health advice because you are standing up for your rights. You may not
think it, but your behaviour is selfish and cruel and has the potential to
cause unimaginable suffering. I know many of you are confused about who to
trust, and what is truth. The fact of the matter is that you are witnessing the
scientific method in real-time, and experts are having to make very big
decisions in order to save as many lives as possible. Let's work together to
save lives. Do the right thing.
Rant over. I care about
you. Stay safe.
