An unnecessary apocalypse

As an emergency physician I can predict what I will encounter on my next emergency department shift. I will see unvaccinated patients afflicted with COVID.

It is also an easy prediction for what I will not see. I will not see vaccinated patients with COVID. This is an easy prediction, for I have never yet seen such a person.

I will also not see a complication of COVID vaccination. Again, it’s an easy prediction, for I have never seen such.

The internet is killing people. It has always been a trove of quackery; now we have “experts” giving reasons for people not to be vaccinated.

These “experts” are almost never front-line physicians. They often have impressive academic credentials, but they lack the experience of caring for patients in the real world.

Indeed, it is shouldering the responsibility for the welfare of patients that separates front-line physicians from myriad medical wannabees. One cannot learn medicine from books, lectures, preparing dissertations, or writing scholarly articles.

One learns only from picking up charts – thousands of them – and assuming the responsibilities therein.

Inherent in the practice of front-line medicine is balancing risk vs benefit. In the case of COVID vaccination, we have an Everest of benefit and a molehill of speculative risk.

Peter N. Nelson

Colbert