From Christina Bergin, MD:
🧵 We have sacrificed so much for you over these past 18 months.
And it took only 3 days for you to destroy one of the last things I was hanging onto – the ability to keep my kids safe.
A big fear, more than for my own safety caring for hospitalized COVID patients, was … 1/
that my kids or husband would get sick. Like so many other healthcare workers, I have an elaborate decontamination routine that I do faithfully after every single hospital shift, to try to decrease the risk of bringing the virus home to my family. 2/
I thought about staying in a hotel. I did all the grocery shopping alone since I was already getting exposed at work. We masked meticulously when not at home. Their school had fantastic safety protocols & we also took advantage of virtual options during weeks of highest risk of potential inadvertent transmission (after breaks when other families may have travelled). We pressed “pause” on participation in sports during the height of the summer & winter surges. We cancelled birthday parties, did virtual playdates, etc, etc.
Why did I do all this?
Because I know how bad this virus 🦠 can be, what it can do to even healthy individuals. It’s not just death; it’s long covid, it’s profound debility after hospitalization, it’s damaged heart muscle & scarred lungs. It’s persistent symptoms like poor exercise tolerance, fatigue, loss of smell/taste, prolonged cough, ongoing shortness of breath, etc., even after mild illness. I didn’t want to risk any of that for my kids or my husband. And so we’ve been careful for 18 long months. Hubs & I got vaccinated 💉as soon as we were eligible.
But our kids aren’t old enough to be eligible. And then you forced schools to reopen without the ability to implement the same measures that kept kids & staff safe last year. And you doubled down on that despite Delta🦠 being 2-3x as contagious & cases starting to surge again.
And as a direct result, my kiddo, who I’ve managed to keep from coming into contact with a known COVID+ person for 18 long months, was exposed within only 3 days of starting school.
THREE DAYS.
We’re still masking; we never stopped. My kids are great about wearing their masks.I bought the best quality masks I can find. But if others aren’t masking up also, my not-yet-old-enough-to-be-vaxxed kids can be, will be, & already have been exposed. And that’s on you @dougducey & @AZGOP.
I’m furious.
I’m deeply disappointed at how many care so little for others in their community, for their kids’ friends & family members & teachers. That they care so little for the healthcare workers who have been beaten down over & over again for the past 18 months, but are picking themselves up to meet the monster yet again.We don’t want you to call us heroes. We want you to give a damn about someone other than yourself. We want you to wear a piece of cloth over your nose & mouth for a little while. We want you to teach & expect your kids to do it too. So that we can *prevent suffering & death.*
We have sacrificed so much for you over the past 18 months.
And it took only 3 days for you to destroy one of the last things I was hanging on to – the ability to keep my kids safe.
Kids & parents have the #Right2SafeAZSchools. Public health shouldn’t be political.
Originally tweeted by Christina Bergin, MD (@CRBerginMD) on August 7, 2021.