THE ON-DECK CIRCLE G. Joseph Beirne, DO, FACOEP-D

In late February of this year, Bob Suter and I attended the AOA mid-year meeting in West Palm Beach, FL, representing ACOEP. At that time, COVID had not invaded my life, nor my practice. On the flight home, I read the stories and updates on CNN, from the CDC, and many other websites. Our hospital seemed prepared and things felt “normal.” A few short weeks later, my daughter, in her last semester of college, was notified that after spring break, the campus would be closed and all classes would be virtual through the end of the semester. As the cases began to climb in Washington, California, then Florida, the sense of impending doom began to creep into my daily life. When the index case in Missouri was announced in March, in my own county, life changed. This was no longer an event overseas or in another state – it was here, in my own backyard. Cases began to escalate in our area. We watched in our own ED, with horror, the situation that emergency departments in the New York metropolitan area were dealing with. How could we possibly run short of PPE? How could we not have enough ventilators? What do we do if someone in our own department contracts COVID? As the weeks progressed, the “new normal” began. Restaurants, gymnasiums, and retail stores

THE ON-DECK CIRCLE G. Joseph Beirne, DO, FACOEP-D

closed. Patients could not get in to see their primary care physicians. Elective surgeries were cancelled. In a matter of a few short weeks, our lives were turned upside down. As emergency physicians, we did what we do best. As Clint Eastwood as Gunnery Sargent Thomas Highway in Heartbreak Ridge said, “you improvise, you adapt, you overcome.”

We learned to split ventilators, learned how to use PPE to its fullest extent, and learned that coronavirus taught us all that we have much to learn about infectious disease. Yet, we did not give up. We did not turn our head and hope it would go away. We learned from our colleagues all over the world how to combat this new threat. Emergency medicine became a virtual classroom showing the world who we are, what we do, and how we never give up.

The road indeed has been a long one. We now embrace summer in all its glory, yet we still live with restrictions. We wear masks to the store and we socially distance ourselves in public. COVID cases continue to occur, but we now know more about this pathogen and how to treat it.

In the back of my mind, I continue to wonder if the vaccine will be effective. Have we truly flattened the curve? Will herd immunity ever arrive? When is the second wave coming? And, most importantly, what will the influenza season look like this fall and winter when we still have COVID in our daily practice? The road to victory over this virus seems long and arduous. But consider some of the successes that have come out of our battle with COVID: •

Telemedicine has skyrocketed and given us a chance to reach patients that may never have been able to receive health care.

Zoom virtual meetings have become a part of our daily lives.

Our own virtual Spring Seminar was a tremendous success, allowing us to provide quality CME to our members.

Emergency medicine led the way in innovative thinking and response to treating this pathogen. Any idea was considered worth pursuing if it provided a chance to defeat COVID.

As we sheltered in place, families united nationwide to provide support to everyone on the front

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