What's Your Role in the History of Covid-19?

[CABGpatch_RN, BSN]

You know, the discourse in some of the stuff I read here surrounding this horrible, terrible, devastating virus just tears my soul apart.  So many humans have died, families devastated, healthcare workers traumatized (including my daughter who is a CVICU nurse and who is an expert in ECMO, OMG the stories), grocery store workers scared, children missing their school friends.  I thank God every day that I haven't lost a family member to this disease....yet. That doesn't mean I haven't lost anyone to this disease. 

But I am more hopeful every day with the vaccination effort.  I feel for every human around the planet who is dealing with this. 

Yet the discourse.  Between nurses.  Ugh.  Why?  Is it fun?  Is it banter?  Doesn't feel like banter to me.

I don't want to debate with anyone.  I look to you for solutions.  I just want us to conquer this virus together.  We have the ability.  Through common sense and scientific safety measures and vaccines we can get this under control......together.

When I was younger, I would argue my points followed-up with citations galore until the cows came home.  Maybe I'm just tired of all of that now.   I'm just tired.

This pandemic has happened in our lifetime.  It's a mind-f.  How we handle this is history.  What is your role in history here?  I would like to think that I did my best to stop this monster in it's tracks and be of service to those who need my help.  

We are Nurses and I know what I'm gonna tell my grandbabies.

[toomuchbaloney]

19 hours ago, CABGpatch_RN said:

You know, the discourse in some of the stuff I read here surrounding this horrible, terrible, devastating virus just tears my soul apart.  So many humans have died, families devastated, healthcare workers traumatized (including my daughter who is a CVICU nurse and who is an expert in ECMO, OMG the stories), grocery store workers scared, children missing their school friends.  I thank God every day that I haven't lost a family member to this disease....yet. That doesn't mean I haven't lost anyone to this disease. 

But I am more hopeful every day with the vaccination effort.  I feel for every human around the planet who is dealing with this. 

Yet the discourse.  Between nurses.  Ugh.  Why?  Is it fun?  Is it banter?  Doesn't feel like banter to me.

I don't want to debate with anyone.  I look to you for solutions.  I just want us to conquer this virus together.  We have the ability.  Through common sense and scientific safety measures and vaccines we can get this under control......together.

When I was younger, I would argue my points followed-up with citations galore until the cows came home.  Maybe I'm just tired of all of that now.   I'm just tired.

This pandemic has happened in our lifetime.  It's a mind-f.  How we handle this is history.  What is your role in history here?  I would like to think that I did my best to stop this monster in it's tracks and be of service to those who need my help.  

We are Nurses and I know what I'm gonna tell my grandbabies.

It's exhausting that we actually have to debate science against a counter argument that is based in misinformation and propaganda. This pandemic has taken an immense toll on this country becauseso many people won't follow the science. 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

Like many other nurses, there are moments over the past year that will probably stick with me through the rest of my career, if not my life. Knowing that I was the last human to hear the voices of quite a few patients before they were intubated, watching families try to say goodbye through zoom and facetime, playing the wedding song of a patient on a ventilator on his 53rd wedding anniversary while his wife was on the phone to say goodnight, doing CPR that we all knew was futile on a 86 year old grandma who had to fly out of state for a grandchild's graduation, a 49 year old grandmother who had a heart attack on Christmas. For months, almost no one that was intubated in our unit survived. 

I try to be tolerant of everyone's opinions and understand that sometimes things aren't as straightforward as they can appear. I can respect people's decisions about what to do with their own medical treatment as long as they also respect mine. I think a respectful discourse of differing opinions is an important part of sharing information in any community. I just object when things get personal and disrespectful. There are SO many issues facing the world that could be conquered if people worked together. This is just another example of how, despite all being one human race, we're often too focused on our own personal agendas and things don't get done.

My heart goes out to your daughter and her coworkers and I'm thankful to all of them for their efforts throughout this pandemic.