This is the job (it always has been)

We live in a Covid world now, and it's a different reality than what existed for the last 50 years. We got a little taste of it after 9/11 with all of our bioterror scares, and a hint of this when SARS happened. But now, we are full-on living in a pandemic reality. Lots of people go into medicine for a variety of reasons, not all of them altruistic. Some people want to acclaim and prestige. Some want the lifestyle and income. Some want to help people. Some want to save themselves.

There's no "right" reason for being a doctor, but there are plenty of wrong ones, and by wrong I mean that the reason will not sustain reality. Times will get hard, and when that happens, the thought of donning your white coat and fighting disease, it loses its luster. And people will complain that this wasn't what they signed up for. They didn't sign up for risking their lives every day, putting themselves in harm's way with numerous possible chances to catch a deadly and highly contagious disease. But I have bad news for those people. This is the job. It always has been.

It's the same job that people faced when SARS hit and whole hospitals were quarantined, and health care workers died without any loved ones ever seeing them for that last time. It's the same job that people risked catching AIDS every day before anyone knew just how AIDS was transmitted. It's the same job that billions all over the world still face with the dangers of tuberculosis, ebola, and numerous hemorrhagic fevers. And now it's Covid. There will always be something. When Covid is done, there will be a new disease, a new risk.

One of my colleagues has refused to see patients in person. I get it. It's a scary world out there. Every patient represents another chance at contracting a potentially fatal illness. But at the same time, we're doctors. This is what we signed up for.