Whether you realize it or not, you are not immortal. There is a not-negligible chance that, if triathletes are dying of COVID-19 in hospitals, you could also die if you get this infection. Your hospitals need to have functioning ICU beds and ventilators and PPE.
Physicians like me are continuing to see patients and do our utmost to save lives. We need you to reach out and offer to donate your time volunteering or your cash or your supplies to help keep our hospitals viable to protect you and your loved ones.
Donate Blood
Blood donation needs to be planned and does not happen all of a sudden, with two individuals hooked up to one another on a hospital floor. If you are able to donate blood, now is the time to do it.
The American Red Cross is reporting that thousands of blood donation drives across the nation have been cancelled. Further, many blood donation sites are located by colleges, which are almost all closed at this time. My orthopedic surgeon friend in Portland, Ore., needs blood when operating on patients involved in horrifying car accidents. Patients in Seattle with sepsis need blood when their hemoglobin drops to dangerously low levels. My obstetrician friend in Chicago is terrified that she will not have enough blood for women who are delivering and hemorrhaging. Your mother might need blood if she gets COVID-19 infection.
Blood donation is an essential health service, and blood donors are exempt from stay-at-home orders.
Write to Your Legislators
If your legislators are silent or not mobilizing themselves to care for you, your families and loved ones, and the healthcare system, it is also time to write to them and urge them to #helpnow and to communicate what they are doing.
There is no point to getting your high school, college and/or graduate degrees if you do not sit down now in the midst of a pandemic, in this time of national and international crisis, to write to your local, state and federal representatives.
Please write to thank legislators who are working to provide benefits to the unemployed, who are working to obtain PPE for healthcare workers and who are keeping themselves informed about public health matters.
This is not a time for legislators to relax when so many of their constituents are dying. No healthcare worker feels that a single one of their legislators should be on break. There should be virtual briefings and meetings that lawmakers are going on even if they are not meeting in person.
