Dream Big
MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE
Hey, team! We’re doing it!!
Thanks to your support, encouragement, and spreading the word, editors at the Washington Post are reading my newsletter—and they asked to publish one of the recent ones on managing stress (see here!)
This is a collective effort. Reaching a wide audience about the importance of mental health—and its intersection with physical health—has been a long-time dream. I have you, gentle readers, to thank for helping me realize it.
To my new subscribers, welcome! I’ve been writing a newsletter since March 2020 with the goal of replacing fear with facts by dispensing real-time, science-based information and guidance on getting through the pandemic, mentally and physically. If you’re looking to get up to speed quickly, click here for my recent What Do We Know about COVID-19 to Date? and here for why there’s HOPE for 2021.
Speaking of “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King Day provides us the opportunity to hit pause. To consider others. To remind ourselves what matters. To practice gratitude and ponder what’s possible.
The pandemic has torn apart families, relationships, and seemingly the moral fabric of our country. It already has killed approximately 400,000 Americans. It has laid bare the racial inequities that have long-plagued our country.
As we brace ourselves for inauguration week, we need to commit to do better. We need to find common ground. We need to begin to heal.
We need to maintain hope. Because we can. We have more in common than what divides us. We have two vaccines that are safe and 95% effective against COVID-19. (FYI Dr. Paul Sax at Harvard has written what I consider the best COVID vaccine FAQ to date.) And we have incoming elected leaders who believe in science, facts, and social justice.
But let’s remember that hope alone isn’t enough to effect change. Let’s dream BIG. Let’s also roll up our sleeves and get to work.
I will check in later this week. I have LOTS more to say about the vaccine, the new variants, and reclaiming life after vaccination. Until then, be well.