I AM EXCEEDINGLY ENCOURAGEDWHEN I CONSIDER HOW FARWE HAVE ALL COME IN THE PAST YEAR, AND AS I LOOK TO THE FUTURE, I AM TRULY FILLEDWITH OPTIMISMAND HOPE.
Orleans (Orleans Parish) had “the highest per-capita death rate for the coronavirus among all American counties to date.”2 In March 2020, like every March, I was scheduled to attend on our hospitalist service at University Medical Center of New Orleans (UMCNO) with the two incoming Medicine chief residents. I was happy; treating patients and teaching students and residents are two of my favorite activities. Little did I know that COVID-19, which had seemed so far away and disconnected from our reality here in New Orleans, was about to slam into our city the way that Katrina had 15 years prior. UMCNO admitted its first recognized case of COVID on March 9, and when I learned about that upon reporting for service the following day, I made arrangements for another physician to cover for me and left. That day, March 10, 2020, was my last day on the medical service at UMCNO; because my age put me in the high-risk group for experiencing severe complications or death if I were to contract the disease, it was no longer safe for me to have exposure to patients—or to almost anyone, with the exception of my wife. It was fortunate that I left the hospital when I did because later that evening, my service admitted its first COVID-19 patient. I transitioned to working from home as of March 11, 2020, and on March 16, pursuant to the closure of schools statewide ordered by Governor John Bel Edwards, the LSU Health
us to try to rebuild our city from amidst the wreckage, the pandemic is a catastrophe that has not gone quickly away, leaving a vast trail of ruin and a finite number of deaths as its lingering echo. No, the pandemic has held the U.S. for a year in its ever-tightening, ever-deadly grip, with spiraling death tolls that seem to know no limits and an unremitting social isolation, among other tragic consequences. The challenges that COVID-19, then, has presented to the LSU Department of Medicine are the same challenges mirrored in medical centers throughout the United States and all over the globe, a knowledge that is peculiarly comforting and of no solace whatsoever all at the same time. The incredible stress of life in a pandemic has led almost inevitably to the temptation to dwell on the many negatives it engenders. However, as the aphorism (often attributed to basketball coach John Wooden but in fact of indeterminate origin) goes: “Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.” We have much for which to be grateful. Though our responsibilities aremany, wemay be grateful that we still have jobs. Though we may be tired, we may be grateful that we still have our health. And though the war against this epic disease has seemed, at times, to be a fight we cannot win, we may all be grateful that we now have new diagnostic methods and new therapies being developed at a phenomenal rate, not
to mention the incredibly effective Pfizer and Moderna vaccines currently in use and the many other vaccines at various stages of being developed, studied, and approved. I am exceedingly encouraged when I consider how far we have all come in the past year, and as I look to the future, I am truly filled with optimism and hope. ■
Sciences Center (LSUHSC) began allowing those employees who could work from home to do so. One week later, Louisiana was the fourth state to receive a federal major-disaster declaration, andGovernor Edwards enacted a statewide stay-at-home order, although LSUHSC was recognized as essential and never officially closed its doors. During this time, just like in the aftermath of Katrina, we had to scramble to adapt in order to function in this new reality; however, unlike Katrina, the problem
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of COVID was not localized to New Orleans, and there was no one outside of the city who could come and help us, or even send supplies, because they were all dealing with the exact same crisis. Like everyone in every city, town, country, and continent on earth, we had to figure out how to handle this on our own. Moreover, unlike Katrina, which hit New Orleans and then was gone, leaving
30 J LA MED SOC | VOL 173 | SPRING 2021
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