Nutritional science, aging, and the laws of physics inhibit my ability to get what I want.

Science is very inconvenient.

Everyone has opinions about science these days. Our social media feeds are full of vitriolic opinions. I miss the days of puppy dogs, nostalgic high school photos, and our children’s latest achievement pics. Now we have neighbors screaming at each other about masks and school re-openings.

When it comes to COVID-19, everyone has an opinion.

But here is the deal.

COVID-19 does not care about our opinions. It is a virus.

Specifically, SARS-CoV-2 is an 80 nanometer enveloped, non-segmented, RNA virus containing single strands of RNA with crown-like spikes on the outer surface.

SARS-CoV-2 has no brain or thoughts. It does not think about anything at all. The virus is a random bit of fragmented RNA that attaches itself to a respiratory droplet and spreads from one person to another… and kills people.

The virus has no motivations. It is programmed to replicate. That is it. SARS-CoV-2 has no desires, intentions, or strategies. The only purpose of this small bit of genetic code is to reproduce itself as efficiently as possible.

We are entitled to our opinions

Everyone has a right to their own opinions. Adults may choose to believe anything they want.

Many Americans do not agree on the value of facemasks…except for scientists, epidemiologists, hospitals, The Center for Disease Control, The World Health Organization, The Joint Commission,The American Medical Association, and The National Institute of Health.

Some endorse the idea masks do not work, the virus is a hoax, and COVID-19 is no worse than the flu.

The thing is, science does not care what we think.

When we read a coronavirus story and react with emotions and feelings, SARS-CoV-2 pays no attention. The viral proliferation pathway is unswayed by our well-thought-out responses.

I have many personal feelings about the pandemic.

• I wish COVID-19 would magically disappear.
• I would like the simple act of coming home from work to stop being a potential threat to my family.
• I want my kids to go back to school and to live a normal life.
• I would like teachers to be safe to return to the classroom.
• I want to eat inside a restaurant, hop on a plane, and enjoy a weekend in Las Vegas.
• I do not enjoy wearing a grimy, sweaty mask all day at work.
• I wish everyone would wear a mask and stop the spread of the virus.
• I desperately do not want any of my pregnant patients to catch COVID-19, get sick, or die.

My wants, desires, and preferences do nothing to change the scientific reality. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, “The thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

We can not be dismissive of scientific evidence

The tension between opinions and science are on full display in the #reopenschools debate. There is a bipartisan agreement to find a way to get kids back in the classroom. The open question is how to do it safely.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “The science should not stand in the way” of reopening schools.

But if science is not going to guide decision making regarding the US Education system, how will we decide? Gut-instinct, coin toss, fortune tellers, or tarot cards? Or should we reopen schools based on intuition, faith, polling data, or political party?

Bending the science to match our desires will not work. The virus does not care whether we open schools or not. SARS-CoV-2 has no opinion.

The virus is not liberal or conservative. It is not a Republican or a Democrat. SARS-CoV-2 does not watch Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow.

The virus will simply hop on board a respiratory particle and pass indiscriminately from one person to another. The virus’s spike proteins attach to cell surface ACE2 receptors, hijack the cell, and reproduce thousands of copies of itself.

Our political beliefs have no impact on viral function.

Scientists do not decide what we want the truth to be and then search for evidence to support our beliefs. Instead, we use the scientific method to answer the unknown. We generate a hypothesis, runs tests, and then prove or disprove the theory

Science is a search for the truth, not an effort to bolster our belief system.

SARS-CoV-2 is a bipartisan killer

Planet Earth has been exposed to a novel virus. No human is immune to COVID-19. Until a vaccine or an effective treatment is available, the safest course of action is for every American to live as though we are all asymptomatic carriers.

The current scientific evidence demonstrates the coronavirus pandemic is not a hoax or a left-wing conspiracy.

COVID-19 is a bipartisan killer.

Our Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC friends, families, and coworkers are catching COVID-19. Many will be hospitalized. Others will die. Each day the chances are increasing; each of us will be exposed to or know someone with coronavirus.

The evidence-based data shows the best way to fight the pandemic is to cover our face, respect social distancing, and wash our hands.

My strong opinions wanting the virus to go away will not change reality.

In the meantime, perhaps my life-saving mask will deter me from eating another Tiff’s Treat cookie.

The post SARS CoV-2: A Virus That Does Not Care About Your Opinion appeared first on Medika Life.

I realize I may be in the minority here, but I wanted to share some thoughts on those “healthcare heroes” signs outside our hospitals.

First, thank you to everyone for what you are doing during this global pandemic. The work you are doing is truly amazing, even heroic. That goes without question.

However, I ultimately believe that labeling ourselves “heroes” does more damage than good. I’ve read pieces from healthcare colleagues across the nation who argue that the “hero label” can be used as a subtle form of (often unintentional) gaslighting.

No one calling us heroes is trying to gaslight us, or put us in an uncomfortable situation, but here are some examples of some of the unintended consequences:

1 — Don’t have enough PPE or safe working conditions? Well, you’re a “hero” to work under those circumstances and heroes don’t complain or demand safe working conditions, they just get the job done. While my current hospital system is fortunate not to be in this situation as they have prioritized securing adequate PPE for all of us, this is a serious issue faced by colleagues in other areas of the country. Some of these “heroes” were fired for speaking out against dangerous working conditions. “You signed up for this” they were told as if the Hippocratic Oath had a section about always agreeing to work in dangerous work environments with suboptimal protective gear.

Nurses and Doctors Speaking Out on Safety Now Risk Their Job. Hospitals have warned, disciplined and even fired staff members who went public with workplace concerns about…www.nytimes.com

2 — As the first wave of COVID-19 was reaching its peak in Italy and New York City I saw several stories of clinicians becoming infected (and some dying) from infections they contracted because they ran into a code blue without proper PPE. There were several clinicians pleading for their colleagues to make sure to don adequate PPE and not just run in unprotected to a code blue. Protecting yourself first is the right thing to do, even in a code situation, as you will be little help to other patients if you are dead, but stopping to don PPE while someone is pulseless certainly doesn’t fit the traditional “hero” ethos.

California nurse treating ‘code blue’ coronavirus patient dies after lack of proper PPE: A nurse in California died weeks after she treated a “code blue” coronavirus patient without wearing proper personal…www.foxnews.com

3 —Clinicians’ burn-out levels were definitely high prior to COVID-19 but have continued to increase. And the New York City medical community was recently rocked when an EMT and an emergency medicine physician, both of whom had been on the front lines combating COVID-19, committed suicide recently. Do “heroes” seek counseling or talk to colleagues when they’re depressed (they should, but I’m talking about the stereotypical portrayal of a hero, here — there are no Marvel movies about Avengers going in for some cognitive behavior therapy)?

Calling health care workers ‘heroes’ harms all of us – STAT. Here’s an unjust fact: Some of the frontline health care workers we’ve been celebrating with social media likes…www.statnews.com

4 — Many of our colleagues, whether it be due to age or medical comorbidities, are at higher risk for developing COVID-19 and worse outcomes, and have been appropriately reassigned to lower risk roles. “Heroes” don’t turn down a rescue mission because their personal risk is too high. The “hero” label does little but cause guilt in many of our colleagues who can’t serve on the front lines due to these conditions.

Anna Wexler, Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine put it this way:

“More perniciously, the hero narrative perpetuates the false notion of health care workers as inherently altruistic, as individuals who will accept the unbridled personal risk, no matter the cost. But in the face of hazardous conditions, there may come a point at which they may not be willing to endanger their own health, nor that of their partners, children, and parents. In the absence of adequate PPE, how much risk can we reasonably ask health care workers to take on?”

“Within the health-care-worker-as-hero narrative, the decision not to work — or to work less, to work in a different hospital, or even in an alternate capacity, such as telemedicine — is nothing short of taboo. It is antithetical to the selfless health care worker stereotype.”

But some people argue that they interpret signs lauding healthcare “heroes” using the nuanced, real-world definition of “heroes”, not the cartoonish superhero version. And I respect that if that’s your interpretation. But that nuance is lost in what has essentially become a public congratulatory campaign. Also “Heroes (but in the real-life sense of the word that allows for all the faults and traits of normal human beings) work here” doesn’t fit nicely on a bumper sticker or a banner.

Reiterating what I said before, I am proud of all of my healthcare colleagues and the tremendous work that we are doing during this international pandemic. If you have no issue with the label of “hero” then I respect that. For me, personally, and I don’t think I’m alone, it feels too self-congratulatory and risks putting superhuman expectations on normal human beings.

It’s one thing for others to call us heroes, it’s another thing to call ourselves heroes. After all, I don’t see firemen (whose actions I often view as heroic) marching into Firehouse Subs wearing shirts that say “community hero.”

The post Stop Calling Us “Heroes” appeared first on Medika Life.