York County Medicine Spring 2021 - 5

YO R K C O M E D S O C . O R G

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:

The New Normal
A Positive Perspective...

PAUL D. BURCHER, MD, PHD
Incoming President

The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus is famous for claiming that
you cannot step into the same river twice-the only constant in life is
change. I think this is an important lesson to remember as the Covid
pandemic recedes, and we open up again. The idea of a " new normal "
is consistent with this thinking. We are not going back to a pre-Covid
way of life, and this is not all bad. I would like to focus on some of the
positive aspects of what may be our new normal and on some lessons
we have learned.
1) Just over a year ago, I was at a large medical conference just as
Covid was starting to spread in this country. At the first plenary
session, I was in a crowded room with over 5000 people and poor
ventilation. I left early, and never again attended a plenary session at
that conference. I don't believe I will ever get in a crowded, poorly
ventilated room with unmasked people. We have learned about
the risks of pandemic respiratory viruses, and there is no reason to
believe Covid is a one-off event. I'm not sure whether this will be
a personal decision that people will have to make, or whether this
kind of event behavior will simply become unacceptable. Time will
tell.
2) I heard an emergency physician say that he expects routine
masking for providers in the ED to remain the norm and
expectation. As he explained, it has always made sense to mask
against respiratory viruses in settings where these are common.
Perhaps pediatricians, primary care doctors, and emergency
physicians will continue to mask, particularly during influenza
season.
3) Zoom meetings. I love them. Seriously. Attendance at Grand
Rounds is way up. When I have an administrative day, I can do it
from home (and I'm actually way more productive).
4) Hopefully the lessons learned about basic hygiene like
handwashing are here to stay.
continued on page 6 >

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York County Medicine Spring 2021

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