Charting a Course Together
By Sarah Pressman Lovinger, MA, MD
IMPACT Outreach Liaison and Blog Editor
I started writing a Coronavirus diary on March 9, 2020. COVID-19 had already been raging through Wuhan China and Italy by that time, turning hospitals into war zones, swiftly taking the lives of older people and those with medical co-morbidities, but until then, the outbreak felt like it was happening to other people in other places. By the end of that first week in March, the viral pandemic was starting to light smoldering fires in parts of the US. Emails from the president of Barnard College, where my daughter is now a rising junior, were becoming more and more distressed, first uncertain about how to keep going but asking students to restrict overseas travel, then announcing an expanded spring break that would allow students to make it back to campus safely, and then the inevitable decision to close campus, sending our daughter and the 2000 other young women enrolled at Barnard out of New York City home to live with their families. Normal life was changing rapidly, and we all needed to adjust to unforeseen challenges. I started to write frequent updates so I could record what has become of both unprecedented change but also the growth of a community I cherish and want to nurture.
Within the next few weeks, my primary care work at a community health center turned into a much smaller volume of telemedicine that I did from home, my family ate our last meal in a restaurant, we stopped seeing friends, and with the exception of my husband, a hospitalist who also directs a hospital medicine program, we stayed home. My daughter and I organized our pantry, refrigerator and freezer and started making only infrequent trips to the grocery store, armed with long and detailed shopping lists. We paid our cleaner, but asked her not to come to work, and started scrubbing sinks and folding laundry ourselves. We left our house only to walk our dog. We retreated to our home offices, home gym and our streaming services, choosing safety over anything outside of our house.
And yet I stayed very busy responding to the pandemic. I spoke to elderly and immunocompromised friends and relatives, explaining in stark and realistic terms that they needed to shelter-in-place immediately. I arranged for my mentally-ill brother to take a leave absence from his job bagging groceries in a crowded supermarket, worried about his exposure. In response to the fear, misinformation and even public shaming I encountered on the Evanston COVID-19 Facebook page, I created a free newsletter providing factual information on the medical response to the pandemic. I responded to texts, emails, Facebook questions and phone calls from friends and neighbors with advice on how to stay as safe as possible. I kept up with peer-reviewed articles on the virus. I helped my daughter adjust to the huge disruption in her college life and kept my stretched husband going with nourishing dinners every night. I incorporated messages about COVID-19, climate change and racial inequity into the work of Chicago PSR, the non-profit I run. By mid-April, I became involved with the IMPACT team.
The leadership at IMPACT saw the pandemic coming, rose to the occasion immediately and used the media to put out this message: IL must use science and medicine to guide its pandemic policy decisions. Through op-eds, letters to the governor and TV spots, the academic physicians of IMPACT have created a unified voice based on public health research about this outbreak and their message has been effective. Chicago and the rest of our state, guided by our elected officials and state and local health departments, have developed one of the most successful US responses to the virus. Our numbers peaked but never overwhelmed our hospital system. New cases of COVID-19 and our hospital rates continue to decline. People who followed the rules and stayed home for several months now follow the rules and wear masks in all stores and when using public transportation. We are quickly becoming a model region for the rest of the country, and the leadership of IMPACT can take credit for its positive influence.
As we move beyond the worst of the crisis and resume aspects of our lives, we at IMPACT remain committed to covering how COVID-19 affects our lives. As editor of the IMPACT blog, I will help frontline doctors and other medical and public health leaders tell their stories. I welcome diverse voices here so all can be included in this Chicago record of the pandemic, the response and how our lives and community have changed in both disturbing and positive ways. We can strive for an improved post-pandemic life together.
Check out IMPACT’s most recent op-eds:
Masks are not a partisan issue. They are a public health issue. #AmericaMaskUp. June 19, 2020 in Kevin MD.
Police Officers, please wear masks. June 16, 2020 in the Chicago Tribune
Check out IMPACT’s most recent television appearances:
New study finds COVID-19 antibodies fade fast. June 22, 2020 on Fox 32 Chicago.
How to talk to kids about race, privilege amid George Floyd protests. June 1, 2020 on Good Morning America.