On arrival for my NY locums this week:
Reception: Hey Doc, staying safe?
Me: Trying. Anywhere to get groceries?
Him: It's pretty grim. Can't even find milk or baby formula.
Me: Yikes.
Him: I've got my pistol on my hip in case anyone looks at my hand sanitizer the wrong way.
1/

As this crisis has unfolded, I've found that comments like this are less and less surprising to me.

The more I pay attention to the responses of our neighbors, families, and government I see that,
above all else,

our American-ness is showing.

And it's literally killing us.
2/

We were bred to believe in our individual exceptionalism.
In our individual freedoms
In our right/duty to rebel in order to protect 'me and mine'.
And if you want to get ahead, friend or neighbor, you can work for it just as I did.

Don't expect my help.
3/

So of course, we face a disease with no cure, no treatment, and the only hope for avoiding incapacitation and death of millions is to do the most un-American thing conceivable:

We've got to put the good of everyone ahead of our individual freedom.

And we are terrible at it.
4/

Everyone knows what's happening at the top: a federal government that, among other problems with its bungled response, has largely left each state to fend for itself.

Then you're left at the mercy of whether your local official believes the science early enough to save lives.
5/

But even officials like @NYGovCuomo and @GavinNewsom who have done such exemplary work daily are holding the true solution as a last resort--a complete, enforced lock down of their citizens--because we want to allow people shades of the freedoms they hold so dear.

6/

They know that we are a nation of 'me's.

For every @SenWarren trying to get student debt forgiveness, there's a senator profiting off of insider trading.

For every doctor working overtime in the ER and ICU, there's a specialist making up excuses to not lend a helping hand.
7/

For every local non-profit trying to secure donations for meals for kids who relied on school breakfast and lunch,
there's a big corporation that will only sell (not donate) medical supplies to the highest bidder.

8/

And for every parent who is working from home, educating their kids, and worrying about having enough food, there's someone stockpiling masks and toilet paper for profit while they book a cheap flight to Miami for spring break.

9/

If only the ratio of me's to us' were 1:1.
It's way worse than that.

And in a time that requires a little less 'me' for the survival of 'us', we are woefully emotionally, culturally, and ideologically ill-equipped.

10/

My advice: strap in for a very, very long slog.
Some of us will lose jobs, some will lose family or friends, some will lose their lives.

I hope that in the end we have the humility to recognize this for the reckoning that it is.

And perhaps reimagine what it is to be American.