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Bigger and better

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    I am a medical doctor originally from the United States.  I have been living and working with my family in the highlands of Papua New Guinea since 2014.  During my time in PNG, I have encountered outbreaks of Measles, Polio and now COVID19.  My daily exposure to these kinds of conditions prompted me to pursue additional studies in public health through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.   I would like to expand on an issue in light of a recent letter by several global health experts directed to the White House.  ( https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/08/20/1029263796/theyre-asking-biden-to-vaccinate-the-world-its-not-fair-but-its-not-impossible )   While the US can, should and must do more to combat the threat of COVID across the globe, applying techniques that have already found only mixed success in the United States may not be the most efficient or practical method.   The answer to the global mal-distribution of vaccines is not necessarily
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Heartless Compassion

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It took a lot longer than I anticipated, but my musings about COVID19 and how it affects people and populations in a setting like ours are no longer speculative. After "appearing" to miss the pandemic, our island nation in the Pacific has caught up lately.  After smoldering case numbers, there has been a recent exponential growth in infections, cases and deaths.  Because we were so late to the party, multiple vaccines are already available that are both safe and effective at reducing cases and practically eliminating severe disease or death.  There's just one problem: We can't get any. As case numbers skyrocketed, a more wealthy neighbor brought in a few thousand doses.  These were reserved for the capitol city where most of the deaths have been recorded (with an unquantified "batch" set aside for a mining company which threatened to suspend its operations if they didn't get any - simultaneously pointing out how much money they brought into the country).
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The birth of an endemic

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  On 11 th of March, 2020 much of the world started using a word previously consigned to movies and games: pandemic.   The World Health Organisation declared COVID19, a disease caused by a novel Coronavirus, a pandemic due to “ alarming levels of spread and severity, and … alarming levels of inaction”(1).   “ Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people”(2).   Many countries declared various states of emergencies and put their populations into “lockdown” mode.   Travel stopped.   Economies shut down.   Emergency bail-outs were given in higher-income countries to keep people from going bankrupt while they shored up at home to “flatten the curve.”   Health workers in several countries or cities were overwhelmed or infected but kept going and were lauded as heroes (in some places) – while wondering if they themselves would contract severe disease or run out of ventilators, and when an effective treatm
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The weight of the world

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I must start my post with a few disclaimers. I am not a chiropractor and I have very little to say about the development of a healthy immune system from exposure to pathogens. I am not (any longer) an urgent care physician working in a suburban practice with a rock star haircut and toned biceps. I am not a discredited PhD researcher with a bone to pick about chronic fatigue syndrome. Clearly I am not qualified to share remarks about COVID19 in a meaningful and engaging way. But I have a few experiences that shape my thinking and I want to be candid about that. I am a medical doctor, originally from the US, now living and working in a lower-middle income nation for the past 6 1/2 years.  Our facility serves a population of about 500,000 people and provides outpatient, inpatient, maternity, surgical, emergency and preventive health services to them. As part of my work I have focused on public health - including antenatal / maternity care, immunizations, and family plann
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