A great miracle is happening here. Rededication is needed.

 From the 12/18/2020 newsletter

 

 

Director’s Corner

 

 

A great miracle is happening here. Rededication is needed. 

 

 

Adina Kalet, MD MPH

 

 

This week Dr. Kalet reflects on this season of miracles in our medical, societal, and spiritual lives, as we celebrate some remarkable achievements and ready ourselves for the future ...  

 

 

The photographs are spellbinding: first responders, nurses, environmental service workers, transporters, laboratory technologists, physicians in full PPE, sleeves rolled up at the ready to receive the vaccine. The science – messenger RNA presenting small bits of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to recruit our immune systems – is a miracle. The rapidity and coordination with which the basic and clinical scientists and government approval processes advanced to save lives is astonishing. The administration and engineering know-how enabling mass production, distribution, and inoculation is wonderous. 

 

Like the generations of physicians who experienced the end of the polio epidemic, the taming of tuberculosis, and the turning of HIV/AIDS into a chronic manageable disease, this generation should be inspired by the awesome power of civil and political society, health care systems, science, and medicine pulling together to address the existential threats to humanity. Many have been overwhelmed from the sacrifice, work, commitment, and persistence it has taken to make the miraculous a reality. Many on the front lines have been infected. Some suffer from late effects of the virus. Some have died. Modern miracles are not magic. 

 

At the same time, the Electoral College met and affirmed that we will have a new president and vice-president this coming New Year. Never in my lifetime have the gears of democracy been so transparent and inspiring. The campaign, the voting during a pandemic, counting and recounting, certifying and recertifying, and vigorously defense of the “voice of the people” were affirmed through the judicial process. We have disagreed and debated, we have exerted ourselves and have made a choice. This process has opened fissures in our civic life. We are in the midst of a major social upheaval, a tipping point, a moment of reckoning. We are exploring new territory. It has been truly miraculous and grueling.  

 

As I write this, it is the sixth night of Chanukah, a word that means “dedication.” On Chanukah, we celebrate a “Great Miracle.” We light candles and eat fried potato pancakes, jelly doughnuts, and chocolate coins. We play games and exchange gifts. We are celebrating, literally, having to clean up and make do after having survived a horrific era of bloody war and civil unrest. Chanukah recalls an historic, not biblical, event that took place during the 3^rd Century BCE.  The metaphorical miracle of Chanukah is that a bit of lamp oil lasted way longer than it should have, keeping the “eternal light” in a nation’s holiest space aflame while a a fresh supply could be procured.  But the miraculous thing we celebrate is that we had the privilege of cleaning up the mess and rededicating our places and spaces to the important work of the body, mind, and spirit. And many of us survived to tell the story. 

 

As 2020 ends, we have now breeched over 300,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US alone. More deaths from a single cause than in any war, although not unusual when compared to other pandemics.  Boxes of vaccine have landed in airports in every state, placed on trucks, delivered to the receiving docks of health care facilities, defrosted, and injected into the arms of our colleagues, friends, and family. 

 

The masked front-line workers in the photographs receiving their immunizations are people who continue to care for us, our health care team, our community, and our most vulnerable. It will likely be many months until we are free to lower our masks, but an end is in sight. 

 

I am looking forward, along with our MCW Kern Institute community to taking stock, cleaning up, and reorganizing in a better way, facing the austerity and dedicating ourselves to the challenging tasks ahead both within the house of medicine and well beyond. Together, we await the miracles yet to come. 

 

 

Adina Kalet, MD MPH, is the Director of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education and holder of the Stephen and Shelagh Roell Endowed Chair at the Medical College of Wisconsin.