MELISSA CHARLES ART
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Contact


In honor of my late mother...
​I write.
​

"Unprecedented" Rant

5/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
The world as we know has suddenly halted, and the SAT word of the year is “unprecedented” (def: never known before).  Let’s start listing some of these “unprecedented” events that transpired  in the last 1.5 mo. You can skip the bullet points if you want to be spared feeling sad since we are all living it in the muck of 2020:
  • Globally, the world was brought to its knees by a virus with high transmissibility and a predilection for killing at will* (*= older demographics, and people with pre-existing conditions), or is it a broken unprepared healthcare system that lead to this “unprecedented” death toll…
  • Nationally, we’ve seen an exodus of employment, flipped industries, leading to a volatile economy as lockdown orders have been put in place to mitigate viral transmission.
  • Locally, we’ve seen grocery stores with empty shelves as hysterical and panicked neighbors with financial means prepared for an unknown “apocalypse”.
  • Essentially (pun intended), healthcare systems in hot-spot municipalities suddenly revealed their brokenness as its understaffed personnel recycled surgical masks, n95 masks and protective gowns breaking all infectious disease control guidelines… All because of a global shortage of supplies, and a high demand from citizens and organizations wanting to protect themselves. Let’s not forget the PTSD the healthcare workers will face in these hotspots.
  • People are suddenly on “house arrest” working from home, eating senselessly, rationing food, waiting for a stimulus, losing their livelihoods..and their minds
  • Students at every level of academia have suddenly been relegated to having parents/youtube/zoom as teachers, missing out on friendships, networking, and  graduating without the pomp and circumstance they’ve duly earned.
  • People staying at home are now struggling with tiktok choreographies, anxiety, loneliness, boredom, fear, grief, unruly children, depression, addiction, domestic violence, abuse as they wonder how to get through another zoom meeting or pay for bills with late fees that won’t let up.
  • Did I miss something, oh yes, the leadership has fueled the fire with mixed messages on what is happening: don’t wear a mask, wear a mask, it is a conflated hoax, is it not a pandemic, it is a pandemic, it’s pearl harbor for medicine (pearl harbor!?), drink clorox? Sounds interesting.
  • And lastly, but most importantly, thousands of families are grieving the loss of loved ones, victims of this pandemic who died alone without the ability to respectfully say goodbye ( as of now approx 233K have died globally). My sincere condolences to you all.
All of this has left people trying to earn a PhD in COVID-19, doing the research themselves amidst being inundated with “fake news” and choosing politically self-serving daily briefings as their graduate defense committee… "did you know that coughing in public nowadays means COVID?" I was told.. not I’m clearing my throat, I have allergies, I smoked weed, I have COPD, or simply a cold/flu…Does anyone know what they’re doing or talking about anymore? For most microbiologists and epidemiologists, the inevitability of a pandemic has been a well known fact for years …  No one listened ... But hey, this is “unprecedented”.

Let’s talk about this short term solution: Putting out the fire, Flattening the curve, Planking the curve…whatever your health officials call it… Um … planking it, extends it (look at that x-axis=time since outbreak), so while we are helping the healthcare system, what long-term solution are we proactively putting in place to sustain the disruption of other industries and people’s livelihood? It seems so easy to ask the unemployed to stay home. Has the media covered raising that blue bar though (hospital's capacity)…I’m just curious, maybe I missed it?   




Picture
“Social and Economic Lockdown until a virus is eradicated” is a lofty goal. Here is why? Only 2 viruses have been eradicated so far in history. Two. Dos. Due. Deux. That is 1. Small pox, and 2. Rinderpest (which only affected cattle). Some would argue that polio* might fall in that category making it 3…but that’s not what we’re debating here. Ultimately what I’m saying is that 2 diseases caused by microbes (viruses to be exact) have been eradicated which took decades of scientific advancement, vaccination, a global campaign with social, political and scientific efforts. Decades. The solution to manage COVID-19, clinical trials, the mass hysteria, panic, conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxers, economic recession and imminent depression will require a GLOBAL solution and coalition. Emphasis on “global”. Not a separatist/populist/nationalist approach or unilateral solution that omits other countries in an era of mass transportation. The solution needs to be multifaceted. It will need an approach that prioritizes healthcare workers having proper equipment to manage ALL patients. It will need to increase its healthcare workforce (and why not tap into the foreign medical doctors in North America that have been relegated to other industries.) It’s like we’ve suddenly forgotten that other medical conditions exist like cancer, liver failure, heart disease, organ transplants, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis… It requires a campaign on proper personal hygiene, hand washing, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. It requires people returning to a semblance of a functional society so they can feed themselves. It will require a more sensitive society that appreciates teachers, custodial workers, grocery store workers, etc. It will require funding for scientists and researchers (who are the real unsung heroes) since society will depend on them for the development and scientific interpretation of serologic studies, therapeutic modality, and a vaccine. Lastly, it will need a HUGE campaign focusing on pandemic prevention and management, because our short-term memories and nonchalance about history will set us up to repeat this mistake in the future. A little over a century ago, the Spanish Flu Pandemic taught us lessons that we as a society all forgot… A long term solution will require way more than the totality of a lockdown until the virus is “eradicated”… But what do I know… I’m just an artist…


Dr. MC 
(PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, in case you wondered) 

Just 2 references for your reading pleasure… Because you have time.
  1. https://www.asm.org/Articles/2020/March/Disease-Eradication-What-Does-It-Take-to-Wipe-out
  2. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00333549101250S308



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm Dr. Melissa Charles.
    This forum doesn't follow any conventional writing styles. I'm writing to help myself heal from a great loss, RIP Mami. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019

    RSS Feed

Copyright. 2021  Melissa Charles Art
P.O. Box 476
El Segundo, CA 90245
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Contact