Y’all know I’m a pediatrician, right? So I’m sharing my favorite meme of the week with you. Because I needed the smiles and so do a lot of you.
I’m also NOT going to share a few other words that came out of my mouth this week, because quite a few of them were not fit for public consumption. Because some people are self-absorbed anal sphincters.
Suddenly everyone on the internet is a public health expert. And it’s not just the Karens with their essential oils, either. It is taking all of my self-control to stay away from discussion groups, because it’s not good for my emotional well-being currently.
Please remember while you are at home sitting through the 4,657th rerun of Frozen, while you listen to your kids fight and watch your 401K tank, that there are real people out there in the trenches of healthcare losing their lives to this virus, too.
When you talk about “only” a 1% death rate from Coronavirus or other such callous piffle, please remember that this also includes at least 23 physicians in Italy, unreported numbers of other healthcare personnel, and who knows how many in China and the rest of the world. That word “only” now also includes two healthcare workers in Georgia.
Yep, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare personnel are in the trenches of this “war”, battling for people’s lives and risking their own in increasingly inadequate protective equipment. All the while some idiots are still going to porch parties and beach events, and blabbering on the internet about how many million people’s lives are worth sacrificing on the altar of their own convenience.
I’m not in the front line trenches, so I’m not talking about me personally. My role is more along the lines of guarding those hospital warriors’ flank. We in community pediatrics are doing our best to keep all of the other stuff OUT of the ERs and urgent cares. Because Strep and ear infections and rashes and diarrhea may not be sexy, but they send millions of kids every year to the doctor whether there is a worldwide health emergency going on or not. If we can keep those kids safe in their homes with telemedicine, then we keep additional hordes away from the already overflowing and contagious main healthcare system.
We also in that way, if truth be told, help to protect those kids’ caregivers, who in more cases than people realize are the kids’ grandparents. Children are being raised by their grandparents in amazing numbers because of the opioid epidemic and because of poverty. Those grandparents – the kids’ ONLY caregivers – are more often than not older and with other health issues. These caregiver grandparents are exactly the category of people that others so cavalierly dismiss in that “only 1% death rate” (or whatever other stats they pull out of their posteriors that day).
As much as I have been learning about prepping the last couple years, I never in a million years thought I’d be pumping gas with a walmart bag wrapped around my hand like a recycle-able number 2 protective mitten to keep myself from catching something that I could give to my patients.
I also never in a million years thought I’d be pawing thorough my fabric stash trying to find the tightest weave I had in order to home sew masks to help protect my staff when supplies run out. And the supplies are already running out in major healthcare systems.
So forgive my rant please, as I’m not completely back to my comic and snarky self. There is still too much going on that is p*ssing me off, and I’m in no mood to suffer fools gladly.
Please, I’m begging you. BE THE SECOND PIGGIE. Stay home.
