The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We can all be health care heroes by staying at home
Atlanta is famous for its wonderful spring weather, when the dogwoods and azaleas bloom and warm breezes call us outdoors to parks and public walkways. This spring is different than any we’ve faced before. We find ourselves facing a pervasive challenge that is quite literally a matter of life or death.
In this usually joyous season, we are all making hard sacrifices — forgoing weddings, commencement ceremonies, religious services and other life celebrations in order to safeguard the health of our loved ones and our communities.
COVID-19 has transformed our lives in just a few short weeks and has affected our society at every level.
Even so, we must accept and adapt to these challenges for one simple, inarguable reason — because by minimizing our contact with others, we lower the transmissibility of the virus. Every time you come into contact with a person outside your household, you come into contact with every person that person has contacted, and every person those people have contacted, and so on. In this way, what seems like a harmless encounter can turn deadly.
That’s why I implore you to take this quarantine seriously no matter your age, health status, or circumstances. Whether or not you feel ill, you put yourself and others at great risk of potentially fatal harm if you fail to strictly follow social distancing guidelines. Our ability to fight the virus depends in large part upon our ability to slow its transmission from person to person.
Thankfully, thousands of Georgians are heeding the call, working from home, wearing masks when they do need to go out for essentials or for work, and encouraging others to do the same, and we are beginning to see the results of this great effort.
When at work or running essential errands, keeping a safe distance of the CDC-recommended minimum six feet from others can help reduce the possibility of infection, although many public health experts say that any number of feet is too close. By cutting out all but essential in-person interactions, we can all help flatten the curve, lower the number of sick people, and prevent overwhelming our health care system.
On behalf of Emory Healthcare’s entire frontline caregiver team, thank you. We’re giving our all, and facing the risks, to care for the patients we have today and to prepare for the many more we expect to follow. We know what we as health care providers are asking you to do is not easy, and we are grateful for your sacrifice.
We still have much to learn about COVID-19. Thanks to our universities and to programs such as the Georgia Research Alliance, our state is blessed with many of the most brilliant minds in science, medicine and public health. Innovative and compassionate clinicians and providers in every hospital and clinic in metro Atlanta are in overdrive working to learn more, to save lives and to get us back to some sense of normalcy.
But all the talent in the world won’t get us across the finish line unless each and every one of us recognizes how important a role we all play by simply staying home. We will move beyond what we are now experiencing, and the more closely we abide by these shelter-inplace guidelines, the faster we will get there.
On behalf of Emory University and Emory Healthcare, I pledge that we will do our part to meet this challenge, to improve lives and to provide hope.
For more information and support, please visit emoryhealthcare.org/covid.