Freedom! …Freedom?

A Sweet Moment It Was….

This last weekend I was visiting my family in Wisconsin for the first time since last summer.  Wisconsin had been, through the fall and winter, so near and yet so far - very much off limits. But now, as a provider, I had been vaccinated early: and now my Wisconsin family members are fully vaccinated.  Meanwhile, my husband (vaccinated) went to see his East Coast family for the first time since September, now that they have received their vaccinations. 

Who knew eating a meal together could be so exhilarating?  Who knew just seeing each other could be so meaningful?  And the weather was gorgeous.  It felt like the shackles of winter and plague had fallen away.  Crocus and daffodils and squills and family became metaphors for the first glimpse of a post-COVID life.   

I flashed back to the last time I’d seen my family 10 months ago: it was June, the first lockdowns had been lifted, and there we all were, enjoying our families and our vacations. Then we got the word: Chicago was putting Wisconsin on the Emergency Travel Order.  We had until Thursday midnight to be back in Illinois – or face a 14-day quarantine.

In contrast, this moment feels like such a welcome relief.

So: Time to… Celebrate? 

We who are providers, like every other American, are champing at the bit to finally be free. Unlike most other Americans, we are all vaccinated.  And further unlike other Americans, we know what the toll is of not staying the course.

Locally, only 18% of Illinoisians are fully vaccinated, though in Cook County 68% of seniors over 65 and 31% of adults age 16-64 are vaccinated.  The more contagious and deadly B.1.1.7 British variant is now approaching 50% of Illinois' cases.  Our neighbors Michigan and Minnesota are now reported to be having 70% or more of their new cases from B.1.1.7.   Cook County is back to 1000+ infections a day, of which 600 are in Chicago. 

On a national level, new cases are ticking up again. After successfully lowering infection rates from more than 300,000 infections a day, the New York Times reported that 76,594 cases were reported for April 5th.  Globally, France, Poland, and India are going back on lockdown. 

We, As Healthcare Leaders, Are Being Watched

Friends, family, and the community at large take some of their cues from us.  They watch us vacationing, seeing our families, going unmasked is small groups.   They probably don't see the care we exercise at work and at home.  They probably don't remember that we swim in a pool of people who are all vaccinated.  Likely, they don't want to believe that they are very different from us, and in their ability to calculate risk the way we do.  We work around nasty pathogens all the time: they don’t. But that doesn’t matter when it’s behavior that’s being modeled.

This does not mean that we should not have our hard-earned vacations, or our moments of freedom.  Directly or indirectly, health care providers have been shackled to the virus more than anyone but the patients and their families (and many of us have been all three: providers, COVID patients and had family members battle the disease). We should be able to enjoy reasonable, safe freedoms we have earned.

However, as healthcare and social behavior leaders and influencers (and we all are, like it or not), it also means that our job as leaders and role models is not done.  We need to keep modeling social distancing and masking.  We need to let people know that we are different from the public, especially when speaking to non-senior adults and young people – these populations still probably should not be going to parties or spring break in Florida.  We need to be talking with policy makers in all settings – as local as our apartment building or community association, right on up to our federal government representatives and agencies. 

We can and we must support and convey the Public Health messages that nobody wants to hear.  Leadership is not just for physicians, it's all of us. 

Hang In There – Freedom’s Just Around the Corner

After all, there is good news: for example, last week our Northwestern Medicine system COVID census was 209, and this week it’s down to 111.  Post-COVID is coming.  Meanwhile, we have the means to mitigate more preventable deaths. 

Freedom? ... not yet.  Moments of Freedom ... for sure – and HURRAY!