Writers Express Gratitude During the Covid-19 Pandemic
By: Dr Jeff Livingston
Tags: Health, Mental Health, Covid 19, Society, Fitness

Writers Express Gratitude During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Being Well writers continue to search for answers.

Thanksgiving 2020. It is more important than ever to find a way to be grateful for all that we have been given during challenging times. As the world struggles through the Covid-19 pandemic, the Being Well writing team comes together to celebrate our lives, our families, and our health.

We will continue to write our way through the pandemic doing our part to bring up-to-date, scientifically validated content to our readers worldwide. Editor and ICU physician Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa starts us off with a Thanksgiving story of gratitude called There, But For The Grace of God, Go I.

As we think about grace, we often reflect on happiness. Editor Dr. Patricia Farrell reminds us in her story When Great Is Never Good Enough that chasing happiness may be an endless and empty goal unless we make peace within ourselves.

I feel tremendous gratitude to all who have joined the Being Well team. Each writer brings value to our community, and I am touched to see our followers continue to grow. I am immensely proud to see our writers clap, follow, and comment on each others’ work.

Each day, I work to discover new writers and contributors. I felt such joy when Nzuekoh Nchinda, MD, a University of Washington general surgery resident, shares her story When A Scalpel Cut Doesn’t Bring Complete Healing. She takes us inside the mind of a doctor-in-training. She reminds us of the importance of mentorship during our training. The human element of care shines bright as she expresses a beautiful empathy for her young patient and family.

Being Well celebrate’s our writers’ diversity. We are blessed with many healthcare provider authors. We also encourage patients to share their personal experiences. Jacqueline Dooley finds aid through the kindness of strangers in her story Finding Gratitude in the Face of Despair.

As Thanksgiving passes, we transition into the Holiday Season. In the middle of a Covid-19 surge, flu season is right around the corner. I shared my thoughts in my story featured in the Medium Coronavirus Blog Doctors Sound the Alarm on Covid-19 Cases. Is Anyone Listening?

I also want to thank Raven Baxter AKA Raven the Science Maven for reminding us all that science is fun. Her rap explanation of immunology is amazing. Check it out here.

Coronavirus

Dr. Anthony Fauci and other world experts have warned of a dark winter. The next few months are going to be the hardest yet. In science, we learn from the past, so we do not repeat the same mistakes. Research scientist Walter Harrington shares how our understanding of influenza gives us clues for what to expect this winter in What Will Winter Bring for Covid-19?

Previous pandemics may provide even further guidance. Robert Turner reflects on the long-term genetic consequences of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in Can the Covid-19 Virus Alter Our DNA?

Just in time for winter, we received more encouraging Covid-19 vaccine news. Because the leading vaccine candidates require two doses one month apart with a three-week window to develop immunity-inducing antibodies, the timeline shows zero chance a vaccine plays a meaningful role in the next three months.

As several vaccines arrive on the scene, many wonder if too many choices create a new set of problems. Research scientist Ethan Milne does not think so. He reports how consumer behavior research does not apply to vaccinations in his story Vaccines Are Not Like Jam.

Cost may inhibit access to Covid-19 vaccination. Robert Turner highlights a disturbing trend in CNN Helps Kick Off The Vaccine Bidding Wars. What’s Your Health Worth?

Rolling out vaccines to 328.2 million Americans will be one of the first challenges for President-Elect Joe Biden. But we can not forget the mental health needs of healthcare providers and patients. Psychiatrist Grant H Brenner provides a much-needed reminder in his story An Open Letter to President-Elect Biden: Psychiatry & The Covid-19 Advisory Board

Fitness

Many of us are working out to lose the quarantine 15. Medium publication Feedium founder J.J. Pryor exposes the hard truth that working out will not offset a bad diet in You Can’t Out-Train Your Diet — Believe Me.

Michael Hunter MD continues to bring us actionable fitness tips to help us achieve our goals in these three stories:

Mental health

Psychiatrist Grant Brenner shows us how developmental trauma affects our relationships later in life in Six Ways Developmental Trauma Shapes Adult Identity.

Jean Anne Feldeisen demonstrates how therapists work to build trusting relationships when meeting someone new. These lessons apply to all of us in her story How Therapists Create Useful Relationships with New Clients.

We gain an understanding of provider burnout as Dentist Michelle Middleton shares why she is leaving clinical practice in Why I Won’t Miss Clinical Dentistry.

Dr. Patricia Farrell explains how habitual lying becomes easier because of our brain structures in Lying and the Eagerly Agreeable Dishonest Brain. She also tells us it is time to throw out an outdated test in her story It’s About Time We Trashed the Questionable Rorschach.

Society

Check out the new consumer safety project launched by Medika Life. MOBILIZE™ Health, Robert Turner, and the Medika team take on protecting vulnerable groups by focusing on quacks and medical charlatans.

The failure to regulate dangerous products like Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) puts children’s lives at risk. Find out more in this disturbing story Debunking Bleach and Chlorine Dioxide as a Medical Treatment.

Older adults are another at-risk population. Dr. Patricia Farrell explains how nursing homes are not the answer for all, and for some, it means loss of independence and a broken heart. She shares the challenges in “I Want to Go Home!” The Mournful Cries in Nursing Homes.

General health

Health Finance Institute links climate change and environmental research to demonstrate the negative effects on our health in The Double Burden of Respiratory NCDs and Air Pollution.

The pollution problem will not help our next author Dr. Rich Sobel who shares his lifetime struggle with asthma and hay fever in We’re Just Big Slime Buckets.

Will computer vision be a useful tool in cancer detection? James Goydos, MD explains this upcoming technological innovation in Skin Cancer & Computer Vision — A New Sense?

Maybe a dirty environment has some benefits? Tara Fernandez analyzes new research on infant immune development in Dirty Sheets Make Babies Healthier.

The editorial team Dr. Patricia Farrell, Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa, Dr. Jeff Livingston, and Robert Turner updated the submission guidelines to help you get your stories published. Here are our tips and tools. Come join the team.

Let’s grow together

Growing a publication is a community effort, and we can not do it without you. Twitter is a key tool to grow your followers and spread validated information. Follow the Being Well writers list.

Lisa Bradburn, a Psychotherapist-In-Training, promotes our authors’ stories on the Being Well Facebook page. Help support the page by following, commenting, and sharing.