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2020 MEDICAL YEAR
IN REVIEW
continued from page 19

is blocked into and out of many areas and countries. Travelers from
the U.S. are not welcome in certain common European and Asian des-
tinations. Students are heading home from universities and living with
families again. ‘Should we wear masks?’ has become a matter of polit-
ical and scientific debate and people are sewing their own with
“YouTube” guidance.

May 2020
At virtual work, we are examining each hour of curriculum content
for four years of osteopathic medical studies. Online meetings start in
the morning and fill the screen all day. We figure out how to eat meals
and schedule personal need times around the ever present virtual au-
diovisual meeting. Telemedicine has come of age and my wife, a nurse
practitioner with a VA affiliated clinic (Veterans Administration), is
“seeing” patients virtually. Political parties and figures are blaming one
another but solutions are in short supply. Violence against children
and women, violence in the streets pitting citizens against citizens, and
tensions borne of long containment are erupting. The pandemic is ex-
posing inequities in the health care system. Memorial Day will be re-
membered as a time that incubated new cases as people partied like
the end of the world was near and protested for and against many
causes. Are we at war with ourselves? Are NIH and CDC leaders and
our public health doctors our only great leaders? Are we for ourselves
alone? Who will speak for those who are unable? Work on vaccines
continues at a fast pace never seen before. ple and health care providers. The survivors are exhausted and often
ill-equipped to deal with people who have multiple organ systems fail-
June 2020 ing. Burnout is a rising problem. In many states, hospitals and intensive
A “White Coats for Black Lives” rally was held peacefully and care units are at full capacity, all available ventilators are in use, and
prayerfully at UT Health Sciences Center field to raise awareness of morgues are overflowing. Tents have been set up in parking lots for
the killing of black men and women and promoted the diversity of patients and testing, and “morgue” trucks are brought in to store the
our medical learners. Participants kneeled, mostly holding signs dis- bodies of those that have died.
playing their own feelings but also referencing the Black Lives Matter
(BLM) movement. After breaking a self-imposed quarantine for the August 2020
first time in three months, I attended along with my wife, daughter, School is set to start soon with confusing messages. Some state and
and grandchildren outdoors and distanced. federal leaders want everyone face-to-face but the teachers, mayors,
We learn now that 380,000 unscreened people came to the U.S. some governors, parents, and bus drivers are balking. The CDC is
from China before a travel ban was put in place. Who knows how sending recommendations for spacing and alternative plans including
many came in from elsewhere in the world? Transmission rates of this audio/video classrooms. Although operating room protocol still in-
virus are high and contact tracing is often impossible as test results re- cludes hand washing and mask wearing, some people do not under-
turn a week or more later unless you play in the NBA or work in the stand that these measures are proposed to keep them and their families
Administration. alive and do not trust the science. A few desperate people are threat-
ening public health officials with violence if regulations such as mask
July 2020 wearing are not rolled back.
A granddaughter was in Dallas for healthcare and I did not travel
to see her. It made me sad not to be with the family. Friends have been September 2020
sending articles written by doctors and therapists dealing with pan- A third niece is married, and the ceremony is on Zoom. I watch the
demic sufferers; there is so much anguish as we are losing so many peo- beautiful bride known since her childhood through a camera broad-

20 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2020