10 Masks

By Joshua San Vicente

In January 2020, a virus emerged out of China and since then has infected more than a billion people and killed more than seven million. This book is based on the author's clinical experiences at the height of the pandemic, reflecting on the challenges that arose from the critical shortage of personal protective equipment. It recounts various clinical situations, and includes drawings and sketches illustrating the crisis. This book is written not to primarily impart scientific knowledge or correct the opinion of others, but rather is a personal memoir of the author's experiences as a frontline physician.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua San Vicente
• Release date: May 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990733916

Book preview

Preface

I am a physician who solely works inside a hospital, caring for patients sick enough to be admitted. These days, one needs to be seriously ill to be hospitalized. During the pandemic, my group of hospital clinicians saw every Covid patient who came through the hospital doors. I will never forget my first Covid patient who presented to the hospital late March 2020. Two days later she was no longer alive. She died on a Saturday, six days after attending a wedding.

It has been a personally difficult period since this virus emerged three years ago. I have always thought of sitting down and writing something about my experiences in my free time. Throughout the pandemic, I have been scribbling my thoughts and musings in a small journal I keep in my coat pocket, making little sketches and drawings whenever I could find some time at work. While trying not to sound too self-centered, this book is my personal experience of what happened.

These days the hospital continues to be so very busy that the seemingly unforgettable events that happened only a few years ago have now become a blur. I have forgotten the abysmal lack of personal protective equipment, the distress of seeing colleagues and their families get sick, and the empty streets as I drove to work. This book is a reminder that an event as devastating as the Covid-19 pandemic must be remembered, instead of being pushed to forget the pain, the many failures, and the sense of loss. When I finished writing this book, it felt like a weight had been lifted off me.

I don’t think this book will be of practical use to anyone, and it won’t offer any solutions on how to address future pandemics. I do hope that it will be of interest to the general public and to students interested in science and medicine. I hope this book provides an insight how a busy hospital physician dealt with and personally experienced the pandemic. Covid 19 made me think acutely how health care workers, patients, and their families constantly run the risk of severe illness and death. Most importantly, I grew to appreciate the toughness and resiliency of life.

As my Covid journey evolved, so did the use of the different medical masks. Each mask has its own story to tell.

The Basic Mask

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Prior to the pandemic, there were only two types of commonly used medical masks. There’s the thin blue surgical face mask which I’ll call the Basic Mask, and the N95. I equate N95’s to tuberculosis use, and the basic mask for the rest of the ailments, with only a few exceptions (measles and chickenpox). We took the availability of masks for granted. Isolation rooms would have the appropriate masks and gowns outside the door, thrown away after a single use.

There was no sufficient information about the new coronavirus at the start of the pandemic. I became aware of the virus late December 2019, from proMed emails. ProMED mail, a program operated by the International Society for Infectious Diseases, is a type of early warning network that alerts of possible emerging infection outbreaks. It tracks infections happening on Earth, a type of global disease surveillance. On December 30, 2019, it requested an RFI, a request for information about a fast growing respiratory outbreak. The warnings were that of a mystery respiratory infection in the city of Wuhan, in the Hubei province of central China. This was particularly worrisome since occasional Avian flu cases have been reported in that part of the world, and the first SARS coronavirus likewise emerged from the same area before it spread rapidly throughout the region.

This warning was the start of the pandemic.

When a respiratory virus outbreak occurs, there are three things one can do to prevent getting infected. One can stay away from infected people, wear a reliable mask, or get vaccinated.

The most effective measure is the first one, otherwise known as