March 11, 2020

“Sick at Home”

While sitting on my toilet today enjoying a wonderful bout of diarrhea, I was able to have a moment of clarity about the things happening in our country.  The coronavirus (Covid-19) is now rampant in the community.  Since the US is about two months behind in its testing, with outdated protocols that don’t allow reasonable suspicion for community acquired cases by physicians, we may never know the true extent of the viral outbreak in our country.  We are sure it is there, with so many flu tests negative over the past two months, but we just don’t know where it is,  since we have no way to test for community acquired Covid-19.

Sensible folk are cancelling large gathering events, as basketball games and political rallies.  Not so sensible folk act as if nothing has changed.  Because of our leaders’ indecision at times of crises and their desire to save their political butts, the Covid-19 will rapidly spread and many more persons will become ill and some will die.  Nero fiddles while Rome burns.  As a result individual governors are moving ahead with their own plans, as Washington State and New York State.  Thank God for some sensible political leadership! At least they are trying to do something.

There are tests available to test patients for Covid-19, but we cannot use them without authorization from DHEC, who being underfunded and understaffed will soon be overwhelmed with requests.    The process is being bungled at all levels, including our state.  When the post-mortem is done on this pandemic of 2020, I am sure there will be plenty of blame for everyone.

As a result of the indecision and mixed messages given out at so many levels and the lack of clear guidance for the public at large (keep it simple stupid), we are in a crisis of informational overload, a crisis of fear and a form of panic driving the stock market and soon businesses, consumers and the average Joe.  Today another 5% or greater fall on the stock indexes and the “bear market” officially arrived.  How this will affect the average citizen is still unknown, but we are sure there will be a lot fewer ballgames to attend.

Colleges and Universities are suspending classes for the rest of the year.  Will there be a graduation ceremony or will this all be done on the internet?   I will fathom a guess, but that’s all for now.

There has been a run on toilet paper across many countries.  Sitting in my “loo” today with diarrhea made me appreciate this simple product of the modern era.  Thank God for toilet paper.  I put an extra three rolls in our downstairs toilet, just to be sure I have enough to make it through this crisis.

It is necessary for me to write down my frustrations as a physician since no one is listening very well at the national level.  Protocols are wonderful things in an emergency, except when they allow no dissent.  Dissent should always be part of any process of planning.  Sometimes, the dissenters may actually be right.

A Prayer:  “Lord God, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.  We are stumbling around not knowing what to do in this time of crisis.  We are manning our stations, waiting to help someone in need as we do day in and day out.  In this case our enemy is invisible and we cannot distinguish it from the myriad of other viruses we see every day, type a and type b flu, viral gastroenteritis, the common cold, severe allergy reactions to dust and pollen, and general malaise.  Help us in this moment to see clearly, to react appropriately and compassionately.  Help us to distinguish the unwell from the well, so we do not overwhelm our medical facilities with spurious admissions that may take treatment away from those who really need it.  Give us quick and sharp discernment in this hour, so that we may serve you and our fellow community well, in the name of Jesus Christ our Risen Lord and Savior.  Amen and Amen.”

Let all of God’s people say, “Amen!”  “Amen!  We praise you Lord Jesus Christ!”

Bill Wilson, servant of God by God’s grace and mercies.