Short Attention Span: Fad Diets, Healthcare Heroes and Black Lives Matter

As part of my work I'm occasionally asked to perform public speaking on various topics. This week it was heart health. Inevitably at the end I'm asked about some sort of fad diet, these days it's usually keto or fasting. The answer is always the same: to focus on sustainable changes. Usually the latest fad is overly restrictive and people fatique of the rules and giving up their favorite foods and revert to their old ways until the latest new and shiny comes up. To be honest thinking about fad diets, telling people they need to be thin to be healthy and anything outside of finding a way to survive nearly 8 months into the COVID pandemic is a struggle. Since March my team and I have been scrambling to read the latest nutrition for COVID patients. Every day since about April we've had at least one, usually more, COVID patients we're trying to figure out how to feed. These patients are on high doses of fat based sedatives, proned (a fancy word for saying they're on their stomachs), intubated or on another breathing apparatas and occasionally on paralytics. The other day while I was on the COVID floor watching housekeepers clean rooms in full hazmat suits I was struck by how foreign this all feels and how while the rest of the world pushes to go back to normal for us that means more of this. Are we destined for this to be the normal forever? In the early days of COVID we had free food for all staff in the cafeteria after we closed our doors to families and visitors, we received large donations of flowers, salads, berries. Which was well meant and received but also there were large numbers of people without pay that likely would have benefited more while other than the ever present fear of how bad will this be our lives and pay had remained the same. And for those that were furloughed they weren't at work to benefit anyway. Work displayed a massive healthcare heroes banner out front and children drew pictures and sent cards. And then, as expected, about 3 months in that all went away. It was too heavy a burden for others to continue to carry or care about. The finanical resources had given out and people had lost the energy to care, they needed to go back to their own things. Which admittedly included 3 local fires, many many more statewide fires, children out of school, and their own job fears. But what we're left with is a heroes banner and very very tired "heroes". I would argue that perhaps the heroes bit is overstated. Likely the true heroes in this are the often mocked haven't left their house since March crowd. Or those that lost their income and still trooped on believing that others or even our government would find a way to provide support. But alas neither has quite come through. Quite like fad diet we have grown fatigued of rules and structure, our attention spans are ready to move onto the next thing that's being promoted and this year there has been a lot. In the midst of all of ths the Black Lives Matter movement arose and for a brief moment amid all the Instagram posts, the antiracism books flying off the shelves and marches it appeared as though our country was ready to make a true shift. And while protests continue and there continues to be work that needs to be done, it seems that again our attention has shifted away to the next thing. Leaing the work undone. Rather than spending money on the new shiny we need to be focused on caring for ourselves and the others around us. True and commited caring. For healthcare workers this is doing away with the glossy marketing of heroes work here and providing time off for workers to rest and heal, along with child care and schooling options. This should be across the board for those that have returned to work. For those that are not working there needs to be a care package that passes, not a short term bandage package but one that comprehensively cares for us for the duration of this pandemic and in preparation for future worldwide disasters. And finally we need to do the work of examining our own biases and those that are built structurally into this country's framework. School history classes need to include the less glamorous portions of our history including that the indigenous of this land still exist and our broken promises, Tuskegee and Central Park, and that the KKK didn't go away and we created equal rights for all but in reality they've continued to exist not just in the south but in California and everywhere in between. Be it fad diets, community care, or Black lives Matter commit yourself, rest and commit again. True change can only come if continue on when the work gets hard not give up when the moment and the spotlight passes.