A doctor’s frustration
I HAVE always wanted to be doctor. As a child, I cannot remember wanting to be anything else. My curiosity about science and a desire to help others pushed me in that direction, and I was highly driven to reach medical school. Now, 32 years after graduating, my zeal and enthusiasm have not waned.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, however, I am feeling a level of frustration I have never experienced before. COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on us in many ways, including physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and financially. It has brought out the best in some of us, and also the worst.
For the first time i n my professional career, Im a experiencing hostility merely for sharing medical information and offering advice. COVID-19 has undoubtedly become the most divisive issue of this century. And the disagreements are not just about health, as human rights, politics, ethics, corporate greed and religion are all constituents of this toxic mix. If I post information about Pap smears and cervical cancer, there is no issue. If I write about mental health, all is well. But I guarantee you that if I post something about COVID-19, especially vaccination, there will be negative energy directed at me.
CONTENTIOUS ISSUE
Vaccination against COVID-19 has become a contentious issue with sharp divisions in opinion, ranging from so called ‘ antivaxxers’ who reject vaccination of any kind, to those who are not just pro-vaccination, but also insist that the process be mandatory.
I have a lot of respect for my profession, and the professions of others. However, I am now seeing a level of disrespect towards the medical profession I have not encountered before. With the advent of the I nternet, there are people who have educated themselves to become more knowledgeable about medical science, but also many who clearly overestimate their level of knowledge and comprehension of complex matters such as the immune system.
I will be the first to admit that I do not know everything. As a matter of fact, medicine has become a humbling experience for me. The field is constantly evolving, and as it evolves we learn more and modify our approaches. However, what is frustrating for us, is the fact that some people will watch random TikTok and YouTube videos, made by people they do not know, not fact-check them, and assign more credibility to them than to physicians who have finished medical school and internship and, in many cases, years of specialist training and decades of private practice and working in public health facilities. Our jobs have become much harder now. The muck of misinformation and disinformation we have to wade through appears insurmountable, in addition to the arrogance and ignorance we face.
And the arrogance is on both sides of this fractious divide. There are supporters of vaccination who are tunnel-visioned and myopic in their attitudes. For some, the only narrative is that of vaccination. I fully support vaccination. The vaccines help to prevent us from contracting COVID-19, and if we do get infected, our risk of severe illness, need for oxygen, hospitalisation and death are reduced. In addition, vaccinated people are more likely to clear the virus quickly from their bodies, and are therefore infectious for a shorter period of time, and also have a lower risk of developing long-COVID, which is the persistence of symptoms for a long duration. The vaccines are definitely of value. However, they are not perfect. The Delta variant has presented us with a significant challenge, and we are now seeing more breakthrough infections and waning vaccine efficacy.
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH
So, we cannot rely in vaccines alone. It is obvious that a multipronged approach is necessary, which would include vaccination, observing public health measures, living a healthy lifestyle, and early diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, there is such passion on either side of the vaccination divide, that a kind of binary thinking has evolved where some of us only see one mode of COVID-19 management: vaccination OR early treatment.
As an advocate of both, I find myself not only being misunderstood, but being a target of attacks from both sides. There are people accusing me of being unethical and dishonest by pushing dangerous and experimental vaccines on them. I regularly post information on my social media pages regarding the protective effects of vaccines, in addition to vaccination dates and sites, and the first comments on my posts are often dismissive or rude.
On the other hand, I have been criticised for enabling antivaxxers and not using my platform to promote vaccines enough. My empathy for the vaccine-hesitant has been misinterpreted as encouragement, and my endorsement of early treatment has been seen as me giving those who refuse vaccines a way out.
To be clear, I strongly support vaccination AND early treatment. It really is not that hard to understand. The two are not mutually exclusive, but comprise components of an arsenal used to fight this pestilence that has been tormenting us for close to two years. Endorsement of one does not mean rejection of the other.
So, I will unapologetically encourage vaccination as well as aggressive early treatment of those who contract COVID-19 and are in isolation. My agenda is simple, it is to save lives. Vaccines save lives, and so does early treatment. So why not embrace both?