I hope you are feeling calm, grounded, and safe, even amidst the growing chaos and uncertainty surrounding Covid19.
I do want to assure you that at my clinics we are taking every precaution and implementing extra protocols to ensure the health and safety of everyone.
While I do not personally believe I will know (beyond celebrities) of anyone who will be severely and critically infected with this virus, I do understand it is causing a tremendous amount of fear that is radiating out into all sectors of our daily living.
I do encourage you to follow all WHO and CDC protocols of hand washing, avoid touching your mouth, eyes and nose, and incorporating immune building protocols into your daily regimen.
Some immune building protocols you can implement today are taking extra doses of Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, and Astragalus, ,drinking plenty of water, meditating (yes this does boost your immune system strength!) and getting plenty of good quality sleep.
I would like to remind you that receiving acupuncture during such a time of outward chaos is a beautiful blessing.
Acupuncture helps to strengthen your immunity as well as drastically calm the nervous system decreasing anxiety, hypochondriac thinking, and improving sleep.
Lastly, I want to share some wise words from a colleague of mine who has been an Infectious Disease Specialist for over 20 years.
I wish to share his message below with you because it resonated with me deeply and I feel his message is missing in mainstream media coverage.
Dr. Abdu Sharkways message:
Written by Abdu Sharkawy is an Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases consultant and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He has been a longstanding volunteer with experience involving several charitable organizations and those committed to social justice pursuits, including Amnesty International, the United Way and Doctors without Borders. He is a founding member of the Welcome Medical Clinic which served countless … refugees and newcomers to Canada who had no medical insurance coverage prior to recently reformed legislation.
Abdu Sharkawy. 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, open-mindedness 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.
Facts not fear. Clean hands. Open hearts. Our children will thank us for it.
Abdu Sharkawy.