Opinion: COVID-19 should concern us all
News that COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials have shown higher than expected safety and efficacy is wonderful and provides a bright ray of hope for all of us. While we are optimistic about the vaccines on the horizon, we encourage every Georgian to remember that we all remain firmly in the grip of this terrible pandemic. Slowing the spread starts with us and we cannot let our guard down.
Physicians, nurses and health care professionals are not the only ones who must continue fighting COVID-19. Now more than ever, we implore all Georgians to redouble efforts and continue to embrace the Three W’s: wear a face covering (fully covering your mouth and nose); watch your distance; and, wash your hands (frequently). These are the best tools in our toolbox and will continue to be for the foreseeable future even after vaccines become available and begin to be administered.
While we do this for ourselves, our families and each other, let’s not forget our front-line health care workers who are tired and stressed. It is demanding, exhausting and selfless work that they perform every day – taking care of our friends, neighbors and loved ones. These workers have had their courage tested twice now; first, in the initial surge in March and April, and then in July and August in a wave that was twice as large at most of our hospitals. In between these surges there has been no respite as they have continued to labor tirelessly to care for patients who deferred care due to the pandemic as well as caring for the ongoing influx of COVID patients.
The second wave did not sink the state’s health care infrastructure but tested it mightily. Strained health care professionals and resources have adverse implications not only for patients suffering from COVID-19, but also our ability to meet the urgent and emergent needs in addition to COVID. Nationally, our strained health care system has led to patients deferring necessary routine and emergency care for other conditions which has tragically added about half-again as many unnecessary deaths from other conditions as those directly caused by COVID-19.
Thankfully, more and more COVID-19 patients are surviving as a result of better treatments, better protocols and a better understanding of this devastating disease. The credit, and our deepest gratitude, goes to the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and the entire community of health care team members who, day in and day out, provide the attentive and diligent care for COVID-19 patients and to the researchers who are discovering more effective approaches to treatment and prevention.
As a new wave is hitting the country and numbers edge up across Georgia, their commitment is unrivaled. They are heroes. But let us not ask too much of them and let us not stretch them beyond their limits. They are only human. They need our support and dedication to doing the right thing.
Remember: these deaths are preventable. That leaves us with one option: we must collectively practice the behaviors that effectively reduce transmission and avoid another surge: wear a mask, watch your distance, wash your hands. It is not enough to do one of these by itself. You must practice them all the time at the same time. And please avoid indoor gatherings with people outside of your immediate household. Outside is always best.
We thank you for your support in this life-or-death matter.
William Bornstein, M.D., chief medical officer and chief quality and patient safety officer, Emory Healthcare.
John Brennan, M.D., executive vice president and chief clinical integration officer, Wellstar Health System.
Leigh Hamby, M.D., chief medical officer, Piedmont Healthcare.
J. Clifton Hastings, M.D., chief of medical staff, Northeast Georgia Health System.
Robert Jansen, M.D., chief medical officer, Grady Health System.
