Feeling cute, might not get COVID this year :) Here I am just after getting my Pfizer vaccine dose #1 after a 12-hr hospital shift in the ICU taking care of critically ill patients without COVID. Many people don’t realize, there’s been a huge increase in the acuity - or the severity of sickness - patients have when they come through the hospital doors these days. I’ve seen so many elderly who’ve fallen or become ill without their usual people checking on them in person - or people who have stayed at home with chest pain for days in fear of coming the the E.R. who then have terrible heart attacks and permanent organ damage - or people who haven’t had access to their meds or doctors or resources because of the pandemic. I’ve seen more people die this year than any other in my career, and the majority of them died of causes other than the coronavirus. Wearing a mask, staying home this Christmas, and getting vaccinated help ALL of these people - not just the people who already have COVID - it helps everyone. EVERYONE.
If 2020 were a basketball game where humanity is down by 315k *points (lives), this shot in my arm means Team Humanity has scored like one solitary basket before the halftime buzzer. I repeat, it is ONLY HALFTIME. 315,000-2. Yes, we finally got some offense, but we are not going to win this game if we STOP playing defense. So please, please, continue playing defense.
Need more analogies? Okay. I get it, not everyone is in to sports.
If 2020 is Return of the Jedi then this shot in my arm only means that the Ewoks just came over the ridge shooting arrows and rocks at the Imperial AT-STs guarding the shield generator. Okay, yeah, sure thank you Wicket, et.al. so again it is technically offense, huzzah; but we still need that shield generator down. And just like our old buddy General Calrissian said, we've got to give them more time.
Still not sticking? Okay. On Sesame Street, Elmo and Lolita sing the alphabet A to M, but then Oscar the Grouch abruptly pops out of his trash can to say that the letters N through Z haven't arrived yet (they're away "in quarantine") and that they have to keep singing the Alphabet Song from A to M---for probably another 10 months. Elmo and Lolita are sad and really tired of singing just letters A through M. They miss N, O, P, Q, R and the rest. Big Bird, Maria, and Gordon come around the corner to comfort them, saying the rest of the alphabet will come back to them as long as they keep singing, and that we can actually spell a lot of things with the letters we have right now. Like, HEAL.
Cue Hamilton soundtrack, Act I track 3.
I could go all night guys. Wear your masks. Learn about the shots. Zoom Christmas and New Years, and let's be honest, probably St. Patrick's Day and Easter. Send a love note to the healthcare people in your lives, believe me they need it. Be kind to one another, ESPECIALLY if you disagree. Anger is bad for you. Do your part the best way you know how, because so many of us already have, and we need the whole roster of Team Humanity to win this thing.
#COVIDVACCINE #vaccineselfie #nursesofinstagram #starwarsanalogies #sportsanalogies #angerisbadforyou #bekind
*Social media note: I posted this on my personal Instagram and Facebook account. (I also posted an abridged version on my LinkedIn account due to word count limits.) After a few requests to make that post public, I just put it here on my website with some minor changes. Feel free to share this link :) xoxo -MM