Mar 31, 2020
Heroes on the front line: Dr. Peter Chai
A new Coverage series features the voices of doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus in Massachusetts
For five minutes starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 3, people across Massachusetts will join in #ClapBecauseWeCare. Like those before us in London and Italy and New York City, we will cheer for our neighbors who leave home every day to do essential work, while most of the public stays home in a desperate attempt to slow the spread of the pandemic. We will cheer for those who are keeping our lights and heat on. We will cheer for those who keep our grocery stores open, and our streets safe. And we will cheer loudly, with awe and gratitude, for those fighting coronavirus in hospitals.
At Coverage, starting today, we are giving the doctors, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who are on the front line a chance to speak to you, our readers, in their own words. We asked that they share their simplest, most urgent messages as they fight this new virus with no vaccine and no cure, a virus vulnerable only to our common human bravery, ingenuity and compassion.
“We took an oath as physicians to take care of people. And especially in emergency medicine, our mantra is anyone, anywhere, anytime. The numbers are changing by the day, by the hour. (And even though we're facing a COVID-19 pandemic, that doesn't mean people don't have non-COVID issues – people still get into car accidents and are battling other illnesses.) People need to remember that nobody is invincible. Disease doesn't see race, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity. We're all in this together. Social distancing is so important – one less person infected or sick is one less person we need to care for.”
- Dr. Peter Chai
More in the "Heroes on the front line" series:
Trish Powers
Operating room RN
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Michael Kiernan
Cardiologist
Tufts Medical Center
Dr. William Baker
Emergency medicine physician
Boston Medical Center
Maureen Plunkett
ED clinical nurse educator
Boston Medical Center
Dr. Robert Green
Geneticist
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Iris Montijo
Pediatric NP,
Codman Square Health Center