DOCTOR IS IN by Dr. Adil Manzoor OP/ED
On March 11, 2020, the WHO (World Health Organization) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. This came a month and a half after the outbreak was first regarded as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Now, here we are, 250 million cases and 5 million deaths later. The United States alone makes up over 750,000 of those deaths, and it is safe to say we have suffered.
Suffer probably is an understatement in the grand scheme of things. At the start, people weren’t too sure of the risk the pandemic posed. Some referred to it as “just a cold.” Well, what cold kills 5 million people in 2 years?
Getting people to admit the virus wasn’t just a common cold was stressful, but not remotely as stressful as getting them to follow social distancing and other specified regulations. It was war. Many didn’t feel the need to inconvenience themselves for others, especially when the narrative about the pandemic was that it wasn’t that dangerous. It seemed like just media hype at the time, and boy, did we suffer for it.
Then people started dying – in their thousands – and it finally dawned on the public just what we were dealing with. There was still some resistance to the social distancing and COVID regulations, though. That was one of the worst periods in recent history because health officials and first-line workers were obviously burnt out, and yet many just ignored their warnings and pleas. The US fast overtook many other countries in the cases and death columns.
I remember coming back from hours of work very exhausted, both mentally and physically. It really wasn’t a good period for health workers at all. All of our hopes rested on developing a vaccine, given how elusive it was to find an effective cure for the virus. The vaccines finally came, faster than we all could have imagined. That should have been good news, right? But Americans are just gifts that keep on giving.
Another war started about getting people to take the vaccine. Some claimed there were microchips in the vaccine; others claimed the government wanted to turn us into zombies – I didn’t forget. How could I? Sadly, we are still fighting that war of taking the vaccine. Please take the vaccine, I’m begging.
Then came other strains of the virus, with Delta being the worst of all. It figured out how to beat our vaccines and this further reduced trust in the vaccines. People that were reluctant to take it before felt justified. I should say this now – the reason we had Delta and will continue to have other strains is that the virus is still very much in circulation. Viruses, like all living organisms, can adapt and evolve to survive. That is exactly what they did with Delta, and if we don’t figure out how to overcome it fast, it will only worsen. Cases and deaths are reducing now, though. I hope the holidays don’t awaken them.
The vaccine is now FDA approved for Emergency Use for children 5 and above.
More than 300,000 kids aged 5-11 year olds have been vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is safe and has significant individual-level benefit for kids: prevents infection, disease, death, prevents long COVID-19, and will keep kids in school. COVID-19 is the 8th leading cause of death for 5-11 year olds and over 8,500 5-11 year olds have been hospitalized (30% of hospitalized kids have no underlying conditions).
With the new authorization, COVID-19 is now a vaccine-preventable disease for 5-11 year olds. Stay safe.
This article was written by Dr. Adil Manzoor DO, a Board Certified Internist & Board Eligible Pediatrician, who works as a Hospitalist, and Emergency Room Physician. He is also the current President of Garden State Street Medicine, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to provide free preventive and acute urgent care services for the homeless. He is also the co-founder of his own unique medical practice Mobile Medicine NJ.
References
· https://theconversation.com/ 18-months-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-a-retrospective-in-7-charts-166881
