More than a million lives have been lost to COVID-19 in the United States, adding to a tragic milestone of more than 27,000 Tennessee residents. Behind each number is a name, a face, a user whose time has been cut short, leaving a huge void in someone else’s life that cannot be filled.
As family, friends, colleagues, and netpainting members we lost, we have a duty to bring his legacy and continue to work to save more lives by vaccinating everyone.
We will have to help each other and, above all, act with empathy and patience.
When the pandemic turned our lives upside down, doctors ran to the fireplace to care for patients. They risked their own fitness and well-being and made many sacrifices in answering a call to attend to the sight.
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Unfortunately, many have noticed that patients die and bear the burden of wasting a patient for their care. All of them have made heroic paintings to care for patients with health problems, save lives and even greater losses.
We have our lives to live as we see fit, thanks in large part to those doctors who have worked tirelessly for us.
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The 25,000 physicians and complex practice providers at Nashville-based Envision Healthcare are part of this courageous team. They have treated nearly 7 million COVID-19 patients, adding members of the Tennessee community.
We are indebted to those fitness heroes.
While many other people have adapted to life with COVID-19, unable to move forward, we cannot allow healthcare professionals to remain on the front lines. We will have to help them in their efforts by remaining vigilant and taking care of each other.
More than two years after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic and a year and a half after COVID-19 vaccines became available, instances and hospitalizations are re-emerging.
Tennessee has recorded more than two million cases of COVID-19, and infections are expected to increase during the summer and fall. This is the time to let your guard down.
COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere, and we can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.
Despite following rigorous public fitness protocols, I, along with about 60% of other people in the United States, have had COVID-19. Since the virus is so transmissible, the likelihood of re-infection is ignored.
Fortunately, I was able to overcome the disease without severe symptoms that required hospitalization. I don’t take that for granted. I am alive today because I was vaccinated and reinforced.
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Vaccines work. They may not provide general immunity to COVID-19, but they protect us from serious illness, hospitalization, and death.
However, more than 30% of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and remain at increased risk. Tennessee is among the last states in terms of the percentage of the population fully vaccinated.
The more we adhere to vaccination and booster guidelines, the more we can help frontline physicians save lives.
Recent research shows that about 50% of COVID-19 deaths from January 2021 to April 2022 could have been prevented if other people had been vaccinated.
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Over the more than two and a half years, we have made many sacrifices and endured much suffering. We have also noticed humanity.
I ask other people in Tennessee and others across America to act with compassion for themselves and those around them, as well as for the brave physical care staff who care about all of us.
Jim Rechtin is the CEO of Envision Healthcare, a national medical organization based in Nashville, Tennessee, with 25,000 physicians and a complex practice on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.
This article was originally published in Nashville Tennessee: COVID-19: How It Can Help Our Healthcare Workers Stay Alert
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