Dr. Harper, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Let's start with congratulating you on your success.
You are now not just Dr. Harper.
You're also Dr. Harper, New York Times best-selling author.
-How does it feel? -It feels amazing.
It's surreal. It-it...
I-I'm still getting used to it, so--
But it-it's lovely. Thank you.
I-I think what I appreciate about it the most is the fact
that it's not just that you're a best-selling author--
it's that it's a book that deserves to be read.
Tell me a little bit about what it's been like
being a doctor on the front lines
of the worst pandemic, arguably, that humankind has ever seen.
And so I'm in New Jersey--
that's where I practice clinically--
so it's-it's been a little bit of a roller coaster.
I mean, six weeks ago, maybe,
it was... it was what we're seeing in the South,
where there's a deluge of patients.
Um, we don't have enough equipment.
We still don't have enough equipment.
We don't have enough staff.
People are-- People were getting sick.
It was not only us getting sick,
uh, and the patients getting sick,
but I was taking care of health-care providers
from my region and other regions,
like the technician who came in.
And he kept apologizing because he was feeling terrible.
He couldn't breathe. His resting heart rate was high.
His resting oxygen was low.
And he's apologizing because his phone is blowing up,
because his boss is calling him,
telling him to get back to work.
And they know he's sick.
They're all getting sick.
But they don't know what to do,
because they can't staff the unit.
And, of course, he can't go back,
'cause I have to admit him back to the hospital.
So that's what we went through.
And now there's a little bit of a lull--
thank goodness-- in the Northeast.
But we're bracing.
'Cause we see what's going on.
We all feel it will come back.
Another thing that's really opened my eyes
has been your writing,
not just in the book but in the posts that you've put out
about the effect on health-care workers.
And one thing I found really interesting was where you said,
"A lot of us-- meaning health-care workers--
"don't know if we'll come back to this profession
once this is all done."
Tell me why there is that sentiment
in a lot of the medical community,
'cause I'm seeing this from many health-care workers, who go,
"I don't know that this is for me.
I don't know that I want to be a part of this."
Why? What-- Other than the-the coronavirus itself,
what is-- what is driving this feeling?
There is a lot of... stress.
And... when I mention
that we feel we're-we're treated as more disposable
than our equipment,
that's a real thing.
It's-it's a strange thing to be called a hero.
Yet I don't believe heroes are put in a position
where they don't have the equipment that they need,
when they don't have the staffing,
the departments that they need,
when their hours are being cut,
their pay's being cut.
Because in health care-- uh, in America,
health care is, for the most part,
like any other private industries,
and it's based on profit for a few.
That's very demoralizing,
and those are the conditions we're working in.
Um...
And then, of course,
I work with many people who... They have families.
I know many health-care providers--
what everyone's saying is true-- I know every--
many health-care providers who don't go home.
They're staying in hotels.
They're staying with a single friend,
where they can be in a basement apartment.
So their whole lives are being turned upside down
in the midst of this.
You-you also talk extensively
about the disparities between hospitals
in underserved communities,
in poorer communities, and communities of color
versus hospitals in wealthier,
um, or affluent neighborhoods.
That's been difficult for some people to understand.
'Cause I've seen newspapers or people who choose and they go,
"I've been to this hospital. Everything seems fine."
And yet there are health-care professionals saying yes,
because the load is being unfairly borne
by certain communities, where there is a dis--
you know, disproportionate amount of people
getting extremely sick from this disease.
What is it like working in a community hospital
or at a hospital in a community
where people do not have the means
and the hospital doesn't have the means?
What it's like... is heartbreaking.
I mean, I-I, personally, I prefer to work
in communities that are inner-city,
largely black and brown,
and lower-resourced financially, um...
because I-I go where the need is.
And so what I'm seeing
is that the people being most affected
are the essential workers.
And we know that, in these communities.
essential workers are the people who are working
in mail delivery,
um, store clerks.
These are people who...
can't not work.
We need them to be working,
and they can't afford to not work.
They don't have the kind of jobs that they can perform from home.
So they're-they're at greatest risk.
They're a greater risk of infection,
greatest risk of abuse.
I mean, I-I took care of a young woman
maybe around... 18 years old, 19 years old,
who came in
because she didn't know if she wanted to live anymore.
She already was pretty isolated,
didn't have any support from family or friends,
now in further isolation from coronavirus,
working in a job where the pa--
the, um...
the customers coming in were abusive to her,
where she was being harassed by her boss,
and she didn't know where else to go.
She needed someone to talk to.
And we just spoke and I listened to her and I told her
that what she's feeling is real and we're all feeling it.
And I asked her if there was anything else
we could do for her, if she felt like she needed
to stay in the hospital, and she said,
"I-I just needed someone to talk to.
"There's no one to talk to.
And you listened to me, and I feel like I can go on."
And I'm seeing-- And she was well, thank goodness,
but I'm seeing a lot of that,
versus the mail delivery person who wasn't well
and his whole department wasn't well
and he was admitted to an intensive care unit.
So those are the burdens I'm seeing--
the-the burden of not having access to regular care,
not having benefits, not having pay,
and being forced to work under these stressful circumstances
with long hours under circum--
You know, they're not health-care providers.
They didn't sign up for this.
They don't have the same training we do.
And they don't have any equipment at all.
So, that's what I'm seeing.
I also want to mention
that, of course, I'm seeing nursing home patients
being affected more
-but also the prisoners. -Mm-hmm.
And this is particularly heinous to me,
because they can't make their own decisions.
They can't say, "Guess what,
today, I want to go to the emergency department."
And I've seen so many of them,
when they come in and they can't breathe
and they're just about to be intubated
or maybe we can stave it off with other therapies.
And they're terrified.
And many of them were young and healthy.
And they tell me over and over again
how they wanted to come in, but they were told in the prison
they had to wait, when they got around to it,
when the next vehicle was ready to take them,
and it could be days.
So, those are some of the... of the disparities
that Covid is really laying bare for us all to reckon with.
Well, I'll tell you this, Doc. I...
If I could wave a magic wand, everyone would read your book,
especially the people who don't think this is real
or don't, you know, take it as seriously as they should.
Um, thank you so much for your time.
And, uh, thank you for the work that you're doing
in the hospitals every single day.
Thank you. It was a pleasure being here.
Pleasure was mine. Thank you, Dr. Harper.