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COVID-19
WHERE TO FROM HERE
Do We

Learn

from

History?

By Wendy B. Kang, MD, JD

Is it just my imagination or are the bugs becoming deadlier? We as many family members have discovered. From whence cometh
could all recite the recent litany of infectious, contagious diseases: our hope? Is a magical vaccine coming soon?
H1N1, swine flu, Ebola, SARS. The influenza virus hits us every In the meantime, healthcare personnel are under attack in the
year. Older people and those with medical co-morbidities die despite front-line trenches fighting an invisible enemy. Physicians, nurses,
receiving annual flu shots. Yet, I cannot recall the level of fear, es- medical assistants, even members of the housekeeping staff brave
pecially the fear of dying, inspired by these diseases as much as has the microscopic deadly bullets daily. What thoughts lie in the minds
been expressed about COVID-19. of ER and Anesthesiology physicians as they literally stare down at
The nightly news, blood red coloring of nations smearing our vocal cords, gateway to their own potential death, to aim endotra-
globe appears as Death stalking our tiny Earth. Would the Black cheal tubes to provide a lifeline to patients gasping for clean air?
Death or the bubonic plaque have looked like this had newsmen The reflexive need to help patients, the need to be compassionate,
covered it back in the Middle Ages? At least the rats carrying the the need to do some good, steps forward. Whatever fears of harm
Yersinia pestis infected fleas can be seen, trapped and neutralized. to one’s own self are pushed into unexpressed caverns of the mind.
Modern day patients can be treated with antibiotics. Selfless love characterizes a professional. We may term it a fiduciary
How do we see the deadly spiculated crown coating of the responsibility, a duty to our patients. But it is really about love for
COVID-19 virus as it throngs in deadly hordes within the respira- our fellow human beings! Akin to veterans who paid the ultimate
tory droplets of a cough, a sneeze, a song leaping to an innocent sacrifice for the sake of freedom, too many within the healthcare
victim? A contaminated touch, an embrace, a kiss becomes deadly profession have given dearly and left us too soon.

18 San Antonio Medicine • July 2020