2020 YIR: Blass Sheds Light on COVID
This year, infectious disease physician Dr. Mitchell Blass updates the AJT numerous times throughout the pandemic.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
April 16, 2020
Infectious disease physician, Dr. Mitchell Blass updated Atlanta Jewish Times readers multiple times throughout the pandemic. His social media lit up with questions of how to interpret data, or how frightened we should be with on-and-off climbing case numbers and deaths. This is his Dec. 6 update:
Sitting at the dinner table on Thanksgiving, I would have never imagined what 2020 would bring or imagined that the phrase ‘existential threat’ would become commonplace in our lexicon. Nor would I have imagined how many souls would be lost to a disease that only 9 months ago was unknown. I never would have imagined the conflict that exists today between the health of the individual and civil liberties.
Today more patients are being hospitalized, however their length of stay is clearly much shorter. The rapid development of medications such as Remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies and soon to be approved vaccinations, which I urge everyone to strongly consider taking, have been nothing short of miraculous.
The past 30 days have brought a massive surge to the capacity of our local hospitals.
The media, in my opinion, has its own agenda and depending on what outlet one relies upon, it may appear that we live on distinctly different planets.
The ‘Thanksgiving effect’ on the pandemic in the United States is likely to be known in the next few weeks. I have learned not to be specific in predictions about COVID-19, as I have both under and over estimated it in the past.
I am certain that THINGS are not as important as TIME spent with the ones you cherish and love. I pray that 2021 will bring an end to the pandemic and that we will all cherish the new normal.
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