COVID-19: Let’s Work Together to Transform Our Grief into Action

Susanna Huh, MD MPH, Sushama Scalera, MD, Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph, MD MPH, Amy Fogelman, MD, Suzie Bertisch, MD, MPH, Elissa M Schechter-Perkins, MD MPH, Amy Sangiolo for the COVID-19 Action Coalition

We just passed another COVID-19 milestone in Massachusetts: 10,000 deaths from COVID-19. That’s like losing all of Brewster, or one of every three people in Gloucester. We’ve lost young and old, frail and previously healthy, nursing home residents, health care and essential workers, and disproportionately, Black and Latinx people. We mourn each parent, grandparent, son, daughter, and friend who meant the world to us.

We also mourn the loss of security and identity. Many of us have lost or been laid off from a job. It’s been a challenge to make ends meet. The polarization in our society has made us feel uncertain about the identity of our communities and country. We’re anxious about the future.

We mourn the loss of milestones that give life meaning. Social and physical distancing has been really hard. We’ve canceled vacations, postponed weddings, and attended virtual graduations and birthday parties. We’ve been unable to say our final goodbyes at funerals.

When traumatic events happen, our relationships with others help us cope. Coming together in the service of others fosters posttraumatic growth, which enables people to emerge stronger after suffering. Americans have shown time and again that uniting in compassionate response helps us heal. We saw that after 9/11 and we started to see it again as the pandemic unfolded.

In the spring, the Massachusetts government, health care workers, and citizens all pulled together to use effective public health measures to curb infection spread. The Baker administration closed non-essential businesses, issued a state-wide mask mandate, limited gathering size, increased testing and implemented contact tracing. The community rallied to support frontline healthcare workers and essential workers. We largely followed the guidelines. The result: infection rates plummeted over the summer. A staged reopening plan moved forward, and businesses and restaurants reopened, sports teams and camps resumed, and in-person school planning took place.

However, our united approach has unraveled, right when the pandemic is raging like never before. We all have “pandemic fatigue”, and many of us have let our guard down. We’re not masking consistently. We’re gathering in large numbers indoors, creating the potential for super-spreader events. People are traveling out-of-state to risky events and bringing the virus home. Most people in our state now live in “red zone” high-risk communities, and schools are shutting down in-person learning, including Boston Public Schools. Rising case numbers and hospitalization rates are likely to fill ICU beds again.

Our unity in following public health guidelines is critical if we are to beat this pandemic without even greater loss of American lives and everything we hold dear. The data from living through eight months of the pandemic have shown that we can curb the spread by using the simple, proven public health practices available right now. More than 800 physicians and community members signed the COVID-19 Action Coalition’s (COVAC) petition, asking the government to scale back on reopening, prohibit large indoor gatherings, and increase testing. The Baker administration just announced steps to stop the surging spread of coronavirus.

But the government’s steps will have minimal impact unless we unite in our resolve to follow the public health guidelines. We all know what to do:

• To prevent infection, wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth, stay at least six feet from other people, avoid large gatherings, and wash your hands frequently.
• If you develop symptoms of COVID-19, contact your healthcare professional, get tested, stay away from others, and alert those who have been in recent close contact with you.
• If you are diagnosed with COVID-19, isolate at home for 10 days.
• If you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, stay home (“quarantine”) for 14 days, even if you have a negative test during that time.
• Answer phone calls from contact tracers.
• Obtain a flu shot.

Without healthy community members, our towns and cities can’t function, and the economy can’t bounce back. Countries like New Zealand and Taiwan have succeeded in reopening- and kept their schools and businesses open- because their governments, health care workers and citizens worked together to follow evidence-based guidelines to keep community infection rates low. We have lost so much already; let’s unite in each doing our part to prevent even more losses to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Action Coalition (COVAC) is a Massachusetts-based physician-led, grassroots non-profit that advocates for evidence-based public health practices. Dr. Susanna Huh is a pediatric gastroenterologist and Co-Founder/President of COVAC. Dr. Sushama Scalera is an emergency physician and Vice President of COVAC. Dr. Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph is a pediatrician and acting Executive Director of Communications and Medical Editor for COVAC. Dr Elissa M Schechter-Perkins is an emergency medicine physician and Executive Director of Advocacy at COVAC. Dr. Amy Fogelman is an Internist and Executive Director of Communications at COVAC. Dr. Suzie Bertisch is a sleep medicine physician, and clinical researcher, and Executive Director of Strategy at COVAC. Amy Sangiolo is the Treasurer of COVAC and former city councilor in Newton, MA.

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the institutions at which they work.