I usually write factual articles about pediatric issues, but today I’m writing in a more personal way.
A few months ago, the novel coronavirus that causes the illness now labeled COVID-19 entered our world and shut all of our lives down.
I have been practicing pediatrics for more than 30 years in Concord and for four years before that as a resident physician in Massachusetts. I practiced in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but COVID-19 has even eclipsed the devastation of HIV.
This is unprecedented in our lifetimes but not unheard of in human history: the Black Death from 1347 to 1351; bubonic plagues in the 1600s and 1700s in Italy, London and France; polio epidemics all over the world; and the Spanish flu in 1918. Now we have the worst pandemic in modern history occurring since the Spanish flu.
This time there is a difference: We have advanced science that quickly identified the virus responsible and was able to sequence its RNA and immediately begin working on a vaccine. That advantage is something that earlier generations did not have to eventually halt the advance of this disease.
The problem is that we still can’t make a vaccine in less time than about 12 to 18 months at the earliest, and that is with the labs working 24/7 on this issue. Many people are getting very frustrated because they don’t understand the issues involved in creating a safe and effective vaccine.
1) The organism must be identified (done).
2) The vaccine must be created in the lab (done).
3) The vaccine must be tested for safety (the stage we’re at) – and this can’t be rushed as we need to know that it is safe to be used in humans. This is done in small trials with only a few patients (phase I testing).
4) Testing is done in larger numbers of patients to see how effective it is (phase II testing).
5) Finally the vaccine is given to thousands of people (phase III) testing.
If all those stages are successful, the vaccine can be released for use in the general populace. That said, it still will take time to produce the millions of doses required to vaccinate enough people to give us good herd immunity and decrease the rate of infection.
Here comes the personal part. All the people on the front lines are psychologically and physically exhausted dealing with this pandemic. Despite the stress, we continue on, as that is what we do and we are not very good at asking for what we really need.
By that I mean we need the trust and cooperation of the American public. We need all of you out there to follow some simple rules and not be cavalier about this serious illness. The mortality rate still seems to be from 3% to 6% depending on the country and the populations affected.
Yes, it hits the elderly worse, but it is now hitting children and teens with multisystem inflammatory syndrome sometimes weeks after their often asymptomatic infections.
So what can you do? Socially distance and wear masks when you can’t or when you are inside, such as at a store. This is such a simple thing to do and one of the things that helped America get through the Spanish flu. Why is it so hard for people to do such a simple thing? Why do people say this is hype and fake and a “little flu” when the medical professionals working on the front lines are telling everyone every day that it is real and that it has already killed more than 100,000 Americans in the last three to four months?
About 36,000 people die of the flu every year, and that’s usually over four to five months so we’ve already topped that – and it’s not over yet.
For everyone who is wearing masks and socially distancing, thank you. For all who insist on their “rights” and are putting the rest of us at risk, please consider the consequences and the fact that you could suffer some of them yourself. And if a medical professional asks you to pull your mask up over your nose, know it comes out of our concern to protect everyone. We are not just saying it to be contrary but to help all of us make it through this pandemic.
We are grateful for all the ways everyone has thanked us, but the best way to thank us is to take those simple measures to protect us all.
(Dr. Patricia Edwards of Bow is a pediatrician and president of Concord Pediatrics in Concord.)