April 2020

TODAY'S BATTLE OF THE BULGE

Like most people, I am in awe of my colleagues in healthcare who are fighting SARS-CoV-2 at ground zero. They have been called on to do more than is humanly possible. And they are doing it! They were thrust into the breach without proper equipment, enough support, and little direction. Yet they have responded heroically, unselfishly, for the good of their patients and the country. The closest equivalent I can imagine is Belgium in World War II, the Battle of the Bulge. There, also, were but a few Americans called upon to perform an unselfish, heroic task. They also persevered.

My practice, like many of yours, is rural and insulated from the ravages our colleagues are seeing. For now. Now, we prepare. We try to ready our practices, our communities for the tsunami we see coming. Sometimes we do that with skepticism from our patients and community. Yet we do it. For them.

It is incumbent on those of us with specialized training to make ourselves accessible to our patients and communities in order for them to avail themselves of that training, even if they don’t understand the need or the dangers.

Like many Pharmacists, I grew up a Nerd. I loved school, science, math, and all that non-cool stuff. I spent hours in biology labs, whole college breaks in chemistry labs, racked my brain over therapeutics and biostatistics. To this day if you scratch me, you will find a scientist underneath.

The country, as of right now, is looking to scientists to save it. While science has had a rough time lately, especially the Pharmaceutical Sciences, the time has come for us to step up, step around the doubters, come together with our research colleagues, implement plans to save lives, and make sure we do what we can to save our patients. Even the doubters.

Our colleagues at the epicenter of this SARS-CoV-2 are doing it heroically. We’re preparing locally, watching the tsunami waves rise as they get closer to us. Our research colleagues are doubling and redoubling their efforts.

I’ve never been prouder to be a Nerd.

Stay safe! Thanks for doing what you do.

Richard Logan, Jr. PharmD

rlogan@semorx.com

Richard Logan, Jr. PharmD, community pharmacist, community pharmacy advocate, and ESPhA founding member