My Op-Ed in the Herald

 

I still can't believe this happened - these words were rolling around in my head, down my fingers, in my steam-of-consciousness word doc journal and then ended up in the city's new big newspaper, our local radio channel, on national television? In the blink of an eye, my private pain had been seen by those I love and by strangers across the country alike. 

The Herald essay: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article253685043.html 

The MSNBC interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNEUSc__4M 

The NPR interview: https://www.wlrn.org/2021-08-27/doctors-ask-public-to-get-covid-vaccine-the-red-hot-real-estate-market-and-haiti-earthquake-recovery 

From the insta post:

This week has been a whirlwind. Since residency started, I’ve wrestled with some big questions. One of them has been - is there a way to stay soft when the work is so hard? How do I keep an open heart when I see such concentrated pain and suffering every day? I wrote this essay three weeks ago to grieve and process… and I could have never imagined it would resonate so much with other people. Thank you to everyone who has read my essay and watched the interview and shared. I remember feeling a little powerless against the rising tide of this surge last month, just wishing there was a way that I could talk to people about getting vaccinated instead of being at the very end of the line, explaining that we were about to intubate them. And somehow (I still can’t believe it), a portal opened up and I’ve been granted that wish, and I’ve been able speak to our community in  South Florida, and even the national stage as a whole. What a precious gift.

Thank you Dr Supino, who believed in my essay right away. Thank you @jacksonmiamiem for welcoming patients into our emergency department no matter who they are, to the communications team at @jacksonhealth for being so excited about my work, to the @miamiherald for printing the essay in its entirety, to @wlrn (South Florida NPR) for having me on air yesterday, to @msnbc for inviting me on the show twice… yes I’ll be back tomorrow some time between 6-6:30 PM EST 💗

If you or someone you love isn’t vaccinated yet, it’s not too late to change your mind. Delta is a big change from last year, and all we want is to keep our patients safe and turn a corner on this surge. Please don’t underestimate the risk of going unvaccinated.

(Okay update - MSNBC needed to shift gears for coverage of hurricane ida so I got bumped off the lineup, but will keep y’all posted about future media appearances💕)