3-30-2021 2:03am

National Doctors Day March 30th, 2021 Thank Your for Courage and Heroism

Chris Edwards Editor

March 30, 2021 is National Doctors’ Day, an annual observance aimed at appreciating physicians who help save our lives everywhere. With this past year of a world wide Pandemic of Covid-19; Doctors and medical professionals have held a special place in the hearts of every New Mexican and every American.

Physicians and all medical professionals display heroism and courage every day in their hospitals and clinics. The politicization of health care, treatment and prevention of Covid-19 recovery tactics has only complicated the work and mission of doctors and health care professionals this past year. Yet most have raised above the fray and remained focused on their mission - caring for us. Today as we work hard on national healing and recovery from Covid-19, this National Doctors’ Day 2021, their selflessness in the face of the troubling and controversial health crisis is truly extraordinary and is more important than at any time in history. We celebrate our doctors and health care professionals today via National Doctors Day, 2021.

Sadly, there have been far too many cases in the U.S and around the globe in which physicians and medical care providers have fallen seriously ill or died after treating patients for COVID-19. The physical toll alone is daunting—extremely long and taxing hours in the hospital—but the emotional toll is just as significant, and enough to overwhelm even the most seasoned and experienced doctor. No one can say for sure how long the health threat will last or how much more our nation’s physicians and medical supports teams will be asked to give given the continued complexities of this virus but we do see hope. However, the public we can rest assured the medical community has done its job and will continue to as they are committed to serve, as service to others, is their motto.

The courage of the health care community in this crisis was magnified by what has been a woefully inadequate supply of the most basic equipment and protective gear needed to protect themselves. There is improvement, but we are far from being out of the wood as of yet. Physicians in many rural areas, reservations or native lands, and urban centers that have been hit hardest by the pandemic are still needing tens of thousands of additional masks, gowns and gloves to care for the surging patient population as cases spike again in certain micro areas. This pandemic is not over and though people are getting immunized there is still danger and the medical community should not continued to get the brunt of that danger.

Due to recent spikes, in some remote areas and urban cores; physicians and medical providers are still reusing masks, sewing masks at home, and being told to use bandanas due to scarcity in resources. With the health and safety of physicians, support staff and patients on the line, an inadequate supply of protective equipment is completely unacceptable and our nation must continue to fight and move forward and never be in this position again.

The holiday first started in 1933 in Winder, Georgia, and since then it’s been honored every year on March 30. This day plays an even deeper meaning to the American experience, this year more so than, any prior as physicians and the medical communities shoulder all of these responsibilities and more as a routine part of their professional lives—but that fact does not diminish the burden they undertake on our behalf.

When one asks a physician and/or a medical professional why they chose their profession, answers vary. But one theme tends to underlie all the responses: a profound commitment to helping others and a passion for humanity.

We observe National Doctors’ Day today in 2021 with much more hope than we did a year ago at this time. There are still many questions and much concern and fear as the immunization program goes full force and we inch our way forward toward herd immunity and a normalization of our society.

The question remains will we ever go back to a normal of the past or will we experience a new normal going forward. COVID-19 has already left its mark on the American psyche creating great political divisions, a distrust in science and questions of our very core institutions such as the CDS and WHO. That damage may be far greater than the death toll from the disease.

Today, March 30th, 2021 questions and division is set aside in Alamogordo, in New Mexico and California, all across this land. Today we recognize and celebrate all of this nation’s doctors, and their extensive support network of medical care providers, who have so courageously set aside their own fears to help those in need, lend a hand to an overburdened colleague, gather supplies and equipment for those who went without, and a thank you to those that accelerated the research to develop a vaccine or medication that is bringing an end to this pandemic once and for all.

Thank you, a special star in the sky twinkles tonight for each and every one of you.

As an Author, I Chris Edwards & our Publisher, Coach, Artist and Man of Science with his Masters of Epidemiology, Rene Sepulveda celebrate you today and every day of how you each handled this pandemic. Thank you!