One year has passed since Governor Cooper declared a state of emergency for North Carolina due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and hospitals and health systems across the state had to pivot to take care of their patients. Jason Mock, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine, reflected on the past year in an ABC-11 news report.
“It’s been trying and I think it’s taken an emotional toll too,” Mock said. “It’s been very challenging: working non-stop, the adaptive process of taking care of patients, early on we had minimal PPE.”
Mock recognized there were missteps early on when identifying therapeutics for the virus but that the year proved rigorous clinical trials can be conducted during a pandemic. He also said the pandemic unmasked significant health disparities in the LatinX and Black communities and believes telehealth is here to stay for the long term; although it can never replace the intimate visit with a patient.
“Returning to normal will be us being able to interact with patients and their families face-to-face: that will be the sign for me that we’ve crossed a barrier to get back to more normalcy.”