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The Doctor is In

COVID-19: A medical problem, not a political problem

Sonya Addison, MD
Posted 11/17/20

The novel coronavirus has been a fixture in our lives for 11 months. COVID-19 is dominating every aspect of our lives. Wash your hands, wear a mask, socially distance. We’ve heard it all a …

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The Doctor is In

COVID-19: A medical problem, not a political problem

Posted

The novel coronavirus has been a fixture in our lives for 11 months. COVID-19 is dominating every aspect of our lives. Wash your hands, wear a mask, socially distance. We’ve heard it all a million times. We are all sick of it.  Yet, we are not thinking about those who are sick with it. 

Now for the fair warning:  this column includes facts. These facts are not a political statement. They are facts. COVID-19 is viewed as a political and rights issue. It is neither. COVID-19 is a medical issue.

I am a practicing physician. I see patients with COVID-19 every day. I see them sick. I see them on a ventilator. I see some improve, while I see others die.  Yes – people die from this. Those numbers are people. They are fellow human beings who have spouses, children, and grandchildren. Real families. Families who often do not see their loved one again until their socially distanced wake or funeral.

Those who know me know that I don’t like the government micromanaging every aspect of our lives. I believe in personal responsibility. Our government shouldn’t have to issue a mask mandate. We should be diligent enough to do it ourselves. We need to learn the facts, then act accordingly. But, sadly, this is not happening. Many refuse to wear a mask or follow proven strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

Why are so many refusing to follow science? My patients have given me some insight. 

• “COVID-19 is a government hoax to take away our freedom.” This disease is not a hoax. It is a highly infectious and new virus to which humans have no immunity. Trust me, the government did not contract with every healthcare worker, media outlet, politician, and educator in the country to perpetuate this. The 90-year-old grandmother who died because her caregivers did not mask outside of work was not “in” on the hoax. This is fanciful thinking. To those who think this is a hoax:  please get your information from a trusted source. Social media generally does not count as a trusted source. You don’t go to your social media page to hire your pediatrician or heart surgeon, so don’t go there for your other verified medical information.

• “Masks don’t work.” There are not enough pages in this newspaper to cite all of the studies showing that masks help reduce transmission of the coronavirus. The one Facebook post that you read isn’t reliable. Wearing a mask properly reduces transmission of the virus by up to 70%. 

A New England Journal of Medicine article goes one step further to describe variolation. In short, wearing a mask is not 100% effective. But, it does decrease the number of virus particles that are shed. When a person is exposed to a smaller “dose” of the virus, the infection tends to be mild. Many have no symptoms at all. It is estimated that 40-60% of all infections are asymptomatic – NO symptoms at all. The good news? Those who have been infected without symptoms still develop an effective immune response. The bad news? You are still contagious even if you have NO symptoms. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing.

• “My kids don’t like wearing a mask.” You are the parent. Act like it. Mask your kids. You don’t let them do drugs. You don’t let them take out mortgages. Why would you let them kill an elderly person? Step up.

• “I’m young and healthy, so I’m low risk.” Congratulations. You have stated a proven fact. Firstly, low-risk doesn’t mean no risk. Secondly, you are not the demographic we are trying to protect. We are trying to protect your father and your grandmother. Wearing a mask protects others. Think about someone else for a moment. 

• “Most people don’t get very sick.” Awesome! Another fact! Our local hospitals (Columbia) treat patients from a very wide radius. It only takes a few patients from each county in their service area to overwhelm the system. About 70% of current admissions to our hospitals are from rural areas who do not have a mask mandate. I spoke with Dr. Robin Blount, chief medical officer at Boone Hospital. That day, only 25 of the 152 patients were from Boone County. Yes, 83.5% of hospital patients were from rural counties. WE are the ones filling the hospitals.

• “Wearing a mask decreases the amount of oxygen that we breathe.” This is only true if you are using a mask made of plastic, glass, or another air tight material.  If your mask is cloth or another fiber, then you get all of the oxygen that you need.

• “There are plenty of hospital beds.” We’ve been hearing this in TV news media for weeks. Yes, the hospitals have lots of beds. Beds don’t count. If a patient is in a bed, then there must be physicians, nurses, and staff to tend to the filled bed. That staff does not exist. Remember that the hospitals exist to treat many ailments, not just COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, patients still require treatment for heart disease, cancer, injuries, and all other disease states. Preventing the spread of the coronavirus will ensure that our healthcare system has the capacity to treat everyone.

I am calling on everyone to rally, follow the science, and prove once and for all that we are capable of controlling this virus without a mask mandate.

Sonya Addison, MD, is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, and holds a certification by the American Society of Hypertension. She currently practices Endocrinology at Boone Medical Group Diabetes and Endocrinology in Columbia, Mo.  This column is for educational and entertainment purposes, and is not meant to replace the advice of your personal medical team.

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