I've had so very many conversations with medical experts over the last seven months that have shaped my understanding of coronavirus. No one has said we should let panic dominate our lives. But some conversations are burned into my brain. 1/

"It kills me that no one wears masks. And they say, 'We have to do herd immunity.' They have no idea what this is like." -- a nurse with lingering symptoms six months after infection.

"To have people who are healthy, sitting on a porch talking to their neighbor earlier, then to say they’re going on a ventilator. I’m thinking of the bus driver - he was dead a week later. There were so many people like that.” – emergency medicine physician

“If they had any idea what is happening in ICUs…it’s the scariest (expletive) thing I’ve ever seen. Forget Ebola. That, you at least bleed to death and it’s quick. This disease, the horrific cruelty, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” –ICU nurse with two decades of experience

“A lot of these folks will not be able to return to the same level of daily living. Many times they are not going to be the same people they were before. Some may require dialysis. It’s going to drive significant use of health care resources for survivors.”–critical care doc

On MIS-C: “We do have a specific treatment strategy, but we don’t have a magic bullet for it. The one I’m thinking of was COVID positive and she just got better overnight. We’ve had other children in the ICU for weeks. There is a big spectrum of disease.” – pediatric ID physician

“On the backend, these people will suffer from post-intensive care syndrome. We have a guy right now trying to wake up after 30 days on a ventilator. They’re delirious, out of it. Weak, can barely move.” –critical care physician

“The amount of death that we saw as palliative care teams was pretty surreal, even to us. I don’t think people understand the level of what we have seen in hospitals. Full families were devastated by this." – palliative care doctor

There are many more. Almost everyone said some version of "If people could see what I saw, they would take it seriously." Dismissing this and flouting recommendations is not the way back to normal.