As the world declares open season on China, be sure not to wrongly point the arrow on the Chinese PEOPLE.

There is a distinction. The state is the not people. In the midst of our growing frustrations and anger at the current state of affairs, this distinction can be easily blurred. We have to be careful where to point our fingers, if fingers are to be pointed.

As the world continues to rage war on the new virus, which, along the way, has gathered many unfortunate but often politically-driven and misguided names such as the “Chinese Virus” or the “CCP Virus”, resentment is growing in many parts of the world, including in my own backyard. Many such resentment, sadly, is increasingly placed against the Chinese people in general and, for lack of an obvious distinction, ALL Asians.

Unhappy times breeds anger and resentment. I get that.

People need to vent. They need an outlet. That I am aware.

But we all know that is not an excuse. Luckily, the majority of the good people in our country gets that. I know that for a fact, having lived here for the majority of my life and thoroughly enjoyed how multicultural, for the most part, this city and this country has been.

I am not here to talk about racism. That is the easy tag line towards any optically-racially-related incidents in our society. But tagging such a general and politically-correct label on the topic, and  touting the simple and diplomatic remark of how “racism will not be tolerated in our society”, although noble and needed reminded of, solves little.

I am here to talk about misplaced anger. And how that blurs the lines between poor judgement and racism, and how, if allowed to propagate, can tear our society apart in such a way that a simple political statement of “stopping racism” cannot repair.

For hate and anger, once brewed, only continue to grow on the inside. And even if suppressed, often become a nidus of infection, much like an indolent virus, waiting for the opportunity to resurface and boil over.

And for that, I am getting increasingly concerned about the potentially unintended consequences as politicians, especially in America, upon stabilizing their internal affairs, begin broadcasting their anger towards China, the nation. All the while, many of their avid listeners, keenly holding on to their every word, might widely interpret their messages simply, as anger towards Chinese, the people.

Sadly, for in America, while still in the midst of a raging infectious disease war, is also in the escalating stages of a raging political war. At the helm, a politically-insensitive president who is prepared to do and say whatever he needs to be re-elected. And one of his current playing cards, perhaps as part of his potentially winning hand, is to direct the suffering of the American people towards an easily identifiable target: China. He is a master of the political arena, and of the vulnerable American people’s emotions. I suspect that he is all too ready to turn his people’s despair into an emotional rally cry towards a potentially triumphant campaign. 

But sadly, it would appear, that even his opponent, Mr. Biden, whom I would have normally expected a more diplomatic approach, have equally identified this to be the correct angle to wage his political battle. For he, too, has clearly expressed his desire to unleash his diplomatic fury at the Chinese government.

So, deserving or not, in the next few months, we will be hearing a lot of strongly worded rhetorics against the Chinese nation. From both sides, among many other smaller voices.

To be clear, I, too, am angry at how this whole thing unfolded. As a front line health worker, I am perhaps at the most deserving spot of being angry at this outbreak. I also want accountability. I also want transparency.

But in the midst of all these rhetorics, I am afraid it will be the Chinese people who will suffer most.

For again, while there is a clear distinction, I am afraid that the general public will simply not be able to differentiate when we are raging a war on a government, and not instead against the people.

Very easily, therefore, if we are not careful, those very people, would become the mislabeled image of the enemy.

We can not allow that to happen.

We have to be smart in reading the messages carefully. We have to be smart in not letting their rhetorics drive our emotions. The speakers may not all be polished and crafted. Us, the listeners, will have to be held to a higher standard.

We have to remember what our values are, in our society, and of the people who helped built this society.

We have to control the outlet of our sadness, our suffering, and our anger.

Indeed, we all hate the virus. We hate the situation we are in.

But none of us, ever, should hate the people who this virus is here to infect, no matter where such infection happened.

The Covid Years. A glimmer of hope.

No, it’s not been years.

That’s a gross exaggeration. Although I’m sure to most, it may have felt like so.

It’s been approximately 2 months since our local province had declared a State of Emergency over the COVID affairs, mirroring what’s been going on in much of our “top of mind” developed worlds, give or take a few weeks.

Here, Spring is looming. April was one of the driest, sunniest months on record. We were blessed with such fortunate timing amidst our social distancing orders. With the sun comes hope. With flowers come happiness. Green leafs bring a sense of calmness. Dry pavements brings an invitation to get out and play.

Us humans have a short memory. Both a blessing and a curse. I find even myself, who stay glued to the television set for daily news of the world pandemic, slowly losing sight of the nasty images of overwhelmed hospitals and mass mortalities during some of the “televised” peaks in our worlds. My mind gradually shifted to a level of normalcy. My attention towards the new focus of reopening, of reintegration, of our society and livelihoods.

“I worry that people are going to forget about the risks…”, said my mom.

“Let them forget a little.”, I said. For the time being. Let them have some emotional relieve. Daily stern reminders to be vigilant will mean diluting the key message when we need them to listen again.

And we will need them to listen again real soon. The second wave will come. It’s just biology. Nothing has drastically changed in our fight against the virus. It is still here. It is still circulating. We are still susceptible. Many will still get sick and die.

But perhaps, something HAS changed. It isn’t all the same, is it?

In warp speed, more impressive than I have ever witnessed in medicine, is our increasing knowledge-base of the virus and its complications.

In fact, that is where I’ve heard the term “Covid Years”. In our current battle against COVID, enhanced by an unprecedented scale of international collaboration and experience-sharing via easily accessible social medial channels, one week feels like a year of progress.

The shear volume of data, of observations, of thoughts and novel ideas, have been staggering to date. Overwhelming to be sure. For many of us clinicians, passively surfing through volumes of online updates, podcasts, video conferences, have unfortunately became a favourite pastime in our non-clinical hours. Some might even call it an obsession, or addiction. For we have no sports; what else do we have to distract ourselves with other than, well, more COVID news.

But in my mind, that will became our main salvation going forward.

The light at the end of this dark tunnel isn’t going to be a proven vaccine, or a widespread availability of a successful therapeutic. Not yet. Those would take too long, and if they do come this year, would be prone to such a high degree of “bad science” that I’m not even sure if I should support that notion.

The ongoing angle to fight this battle, to gain and keep an upper hand, will come down to knowledge and preparation.

And our numbers are reflecting that success.

Locally, despite somewhat persistent case numbers, admissions rates and ICU numbers are declining.

Are we humans becoming less vulnerable to the virus? No. We are simply adapting as a population to know how to fight it better.

Perhaps one of the earliest “lessons” in this pandemic, stemming from observations in Wuhan and Italy and early New York, was a call to “intubate early” for severe cases. They crash quickly, we were told.

Suddenly, many COVID patients around the world ended up on ventilators. Just like that, hospital capacities grind to a halt. Death rates rose for those who needed but lacked an ICU bed.

On top of that, widespread worries about aerosolizing the virus into open space forced many clinicians to avoid previously useful “bridging or temporizing” methods, such as high flow oxygen, or BIPAP or CPAP, that has been invaluable in the past for other respiratory struggles. As such, even many “non-COVID” patients who might have benefited from these therapies were denied such interventions, perhaps leading to progression of their non-COVID illnesses. This might be hard to prove, but logically plausible.

But within weeks, the medical field has turned the corner. Progressive observations from NY and other hot spots described a changing of attitudes, that perhaps such “early intubations” were not, in fact, protective, or possibly even detrimental. A new observation, of many “happy hypoxic” patients, dumbfounded clinicians, as they stared at patients with numbers that should not normally be compatible with life but instead lying prone “happily” tapping on their iPhones.

Suddenly, we aren’t rushing to jam tubes down all these people’s throats “to keep them alive” anymore. From a hospital resource point of view, this would have profound positive influences.

Meanwhile, week by week, we are discovering new and unsettling complications of this virus, from unexpected thrombotic events to neurological complications to, for heaven’s sake, serious atypical inflammatory conditions in kids. These unexpected events are truly what makes this virus awful to deal with, in my opinion.

But week by week, we are pulling together as a human race to discover new insights in how to detect and counteract these complications.

As for our collective livelihood, our economy, and our social needs, our path towards reopening and reintegration will not yet be solved by a viable vaccine, but instead be guided by our improving knowledge on the determinants of prevention, identification, and separation of this virus from our society.

There, too, it will be knowledge and preparation that will enable us to get as close to, although no yet to the same level, to our previous normal.  

In popular social media circle, a lot of fuss has been made about the virus “mutating” or “evolving”.

But nobody is talking about the “evolution” of the human race. We, as a whole, integrated by modern technology which allows our collective wisdom to be shared and utilized instantly, has an edge to fight this thing. (Indeed, cloud computing and networking companies aren’t just helping us stay afloat in the stock market, they are also allowing us to keep winning in this fight).

For throughout the summer and come next fall, we are going to need all of this knowledge and preparation to keep fighting.

And for that, together with the sunshine and booming flowers, I am starting to develop a small hint of optimism, that we might just be able to pull it off, vaccine or not.