Open Letter to the world from an infectious disease specialist about Covid-19

I'm a doctor and an Infectious Diseases Specialist. I've been at this for more than 20 years seeing sick patients on a daily basis. I have worked in inner city hospitals and in the poorest slums of Africa. HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis,TB, SARS, Measles, Shingles, Whooping cough, Diphtheria...there is little I haven't been exposed to in my profession. And with notable exception of SARS, very little has left me feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed or downright scared.

I am not scared of Covid-19. I am concerned about the implications of a novel infectious agent that has spread the world over and continues to find new footholds in different soil. I am rightly concerned for the welfare of those who are elderly, in frail health or disenfranchised who stand to suffer mostly, and disproportionately, at the hands of this new scourge. But I am not scared of Covid-19.

What I am scared about is the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything that could fill a bomb shelter adequately in a post-apocalyptic world. I am scared of the N95 masks that are stolen from hospitals and urgent care clinics where they are actually needed for front line healthcare providers and instead are being donned in airports, malls, and coffee lounges, perpetuating even more fear and suspicion of others. I am scared that our hospitals will be overwhelmed with anyone who thinks they " probably don't have it but may as well get checked out no matter what because you just never know..." and those with heart failure, emphysema, pneumonia and strokes will pay the price for overfilled ER waiting rooms with only so many doctors and nurses to assess.

I am scared that travel restrictions will become so far reaching that weddings will be canceled, graduations missed and family reunions will not materialize. And well, even that big party called the Olympic Games...that could be kyboshed too. Can you even imagine?

I'm scared those same epidemic fears will limit trade, harm partnerships in multiple sectors, business and otherwise and ultimately culminate in a global recession.

But mostly, I'm scared about what message we are telling our kids when faced with a threat. Instead of reason, rationality, openmindedness and altruism, we are telling them to panic, be fearful, suspicious, reactionary and self-interested.

Covid-19 is nowhere near over. It will be coming to a city, a hospital, a friend, even a family member near you at some point. Expect it. Stop waiting to be surprised further. The fact is the virus itself will not likely do much harm when it arrives. But our own behaviors and "fight for yourself above all else" attitude could prove disastrous.

I implore you all. Temper fear with reason, panic with patience and uncertainty with education. We have an opportunity to learn a great deal about health hygiene and limiting the spread of innumerable transmissible diseases in our society. Let's meet this challenge together in the best spirit of compassion for others, patience, and above all, an unfailing effort to seek truth, facts and knowledge as opposed to conjecture, speculation and catastrophizing.

But but... isn't this the rule for teaching in all our schools?

Not just there, but Homeland Security recruitment. Everyday I hear one of its advertisements with almost all teens and mostly females (and the video version includes a a lesbian couple), exhorting,

"why take a chance, why risk a mistake, why - say something? We all have reasons to ignore the things that give us pause, that seem out of place, that don't feel right...If you see something, why don't you say something?...Report suspicious activity to local authorities." Homeland Security offers a number of videos and audio files of different lengths and languages with variations of the same message and with the young being appealed to as America's watch-persons. But who tend to be the least discerning - and the most addicted to phones and video games).

While the object of this is ostensibly to combat terrorism, you would think the kind of activity to be reported would be such things as taking pictures of LNG tankers, and with mature persons, especially those over 40 mainly being the watch-persons.

Instead, Homeland Security does not target anyone over about 40, these being the most mature, life-experienced discerning, nor ex-military or professionals (save for one young female teacher), as its reporters, but repeatedly shows teens, and in two instances millennials, as its target audience

And in targeting them as reporters, Homeland Security provides a wallet card with a list of activities, many of which that can easily be innocent and require discernment to interpret as dangerous, esp. to national security; (eliciting information; acquisition of expertise; implied threat; surveillance; diversion; probing for security; misrepresentation; materials acquisition; sector-specific incident; recruiting; attempted intrusion; tapering; cyberattack; weapons collection; aviation activity).

In addition, rather than telling parents and seeking advice about what they see, parents are ignored and they are simply told to contact local authorities.

Now what I see as "suspicious activity" is that of the government recruiting the most undiscerning and easily offended as Americas watchpersons for homeland security , while ignoring the older generation, and by-passing parents.

It is not hard to see how this government recruitment of the young and the ignoring parents and the older generation fosters not only frivolous reporting by an increasingly paranoid generation (especially those raised as only children and spoiled) , including that of politically incorrect activity, but that of marginalizing the older generation reporting, while increasing reliance upon the government.

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