As a physician, I spent my whole career trying to make people better. Patients came to me with the expectation that I had the knowledge and tools to do just that.
So nothing is more disheartening than to do everything you can and still not be able to save someone. Also, nothing is more infuriating than someone suffering or dying from the selfishness of someone else — like getting cancer from second-hand smoke or a child crushed by a distracted or drunken driver.
Now we are faced with our worst nightmare — a rapidly spreading disease we don’t know enough about, where treatments are often inadequate despite using all our resources. People are dying without being able to say goodbye to their families. Health care workers are putting themselves at risk of the same fate because they feel they have the duty to do so. They often feel helpless. That is what doctors, nurses and many others battle to exhaustion every day. The horror to them is that they dedicated their lives to make people better, and now often they can’t.
So even if you don’t know someone who got sick or died, wear a mask. Even if you think that you will not be like the one in every 65 people in Salt Lake County who have tested positive, wear a mask. Even if you think that you are too young, tough and healthy to get sick from it (you are not), wear a mask.
Compare your inconvenience and suffering wearing a mask to those you may asymptomatically and unknowingly spread it to — sending them to our world.
Edward Hashimoto
Cottonwood Heights