CoVID chaos and public perception

2020-12-17

People assume as an epidemiologist, statistics are just “numbers”… faceless entities that are just a means to an end. For some, that may be true. But for most of us, it is exactly the opposite – we know and feel every number, because every single one has value and meaning… they tell a story, and change our outcomes, risk assessments and predictions.

Maybe for me, the cases glare at me… because before becoming a vet I was an EMT, and the day I quit I watched a baby die from shaken baby syndrome. And in my Master’s degree I was madly trying to prevent a plague epidemic in black-footed ferrets on the brink of extinction – but couldn’t find a single positive animal (ferret or their rodent prey)… and very few fleas (the insect vector transmitting the disease). With my PhD I lived and breathed every single dog bite and aggressive attack for 4 years, as I desperately tried to find positive ways to prevent negative situations. Every event, every wound, every little detail was scrutinised, every factor was weighed carefully.

And now? Now my job is to provide guidance and recommendations to prevent, mitigate and terminate incursions, mass epidemics and pandemics of foreign animal disease, especially zoonoses… So during tuberculosis outbreaks, every single farm matters… every single case matters… every affected producer eats away at me.

And these days… these are really, really hard days. Because all of these severely ill CoVID patients and casualties aren’t just names… they aren’t just faceless entities. They are loved, they are missed, they are/were someone’s whole life. And the symptoms they suffer are horrendous. Every person matters… And everyone has a global responsibility to keep themselves and the people around them safe and healthy.

So please remember – we all need to do our part. We all need to remember the people around us. And we need to make sure that those who have died don’t just fade into a series of numbers. They still have much to teach us.