From Brianne H. Rowan ‘12—
Dear fellow Juniatians,
I’m currently a 3rd year family medicine resident in Tacoma, Washington (just south of Seattle) and just finished a month on our busy inpatient medicine service.

Our patients, like so many others in this country were admitted for the usual reasons, but also for COVID 19 - some to general floors and others ICUs. I discovered caring for these patients is this pandemic requires a whole lot of, as one podcast I listen to put it, “unlearning.”

Whereas I am used to evidence-based medicine and peer-reviewed controlled trials to back up decisions, in this pandemic we find ourselves basing decisions on recommendations in emails from doctors in NY or Italy, or guidelines published yesterday based on a study of 5 patients.

Each day I needed to unlearn the latest treatment from the day before and learn a new one, because the “evidence” and recommendations were changing daily. While I hope never again to face a time of such medical uncertainty, I do hope that all of us can learn to unlearn.

I suggest we unlearn who the true heroes are in this pandemic; it is not those who were privileged enough to graduate from a private liberal arts college and medical school, it is janitors, respiratory therapists, nurses, techs, who show up despite inadequate pay for the danger.

I suggest we unlearn that it is primarily the virus that kills people and relearn that it is the lack of a centralized health care system and inequities in our insurance system that are leading to excess deaths.

I suggest we unlearn that the inequity of this pandemic is that some states have access to more ventilators than other states and relearn that the inequity of our lives is the underlying systemic racism in our society is killing blacks at disproportionate rates.

We can learn to unlearn. I have fond memories of sitting in Good Hall late at night and debating various topics with my fellow Juniatians. Those same friends, just this past weekend, helped me to process my month on service.

Push each other to unlearn what our society has inherently taught us as privileged college graduates, and use your privilege to make change.
Stay safe (but more importantly - be a safety net for those who were never safe to start with). #JuniataStrong