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The Physician in a Time of Plague
This is probably not a picture of Dr. Alpert.
So I’m reading the American Journal of Medicine, and on page 651 there is an editorial by Joseph S. Alpert, MD. He starts by discussing the book, “The Plague” by Albert Camus, a historical novel set in the Middle Ages. It’s about an heroic physician named Dr. Rieux who elects not to flee, but to stay in his hometown of Oran during the Black Death and treat his patients as best he can. Dr. Alpert then writes (I swear I am not making this up), “At this time (the end of March 2020), we are experiencing events in the United States and throughout the world similar to those described in “The Plague.” Not feeling sufficiently heroic yet, Dr. Alpert writes in the penultimate paragraph, “Thus, the arrival of the coronavirus in the United States presented me with the same decision that Dr. Rieux and his colleagues had to make. They chose to fight the plague as did I … I followed in the footsteps of Dr. Rieux.” Again, I swear that these are direct quotes from Dr. Alpert’s editorial. He even entitled his essay, “Life Imitates Art: The Physician in a Time of Plague.” Go look it up yourself if you like.
The Black Death killed an estimated 30% – 60% of Europe’s population. It reduced the world’s population by about 25%. It had fatality rates of nearly 90% in some places. Anyone who looks at our coronavirus data and sees the Black Death has lost all sense of reality. Perhaps Dr. Alpert really wants to be a hero. Or perhaps he knows nothing about history. Or, perhaps, nothing about current events. Or, perhaps, well, I just don’t know. And remember, he is a medical school professor writing in a medical journal. This is not MSNBC, The Huffington Post, or The New York Times. What the heck is going on? How could he write this? I just don’t understand. And neither, apparently, does Dr. Alpert.
Published in General
Good analysis. My freshman composition class had as its theme very depressing books. Welcome to college. At least “The Plague” was literary. Depressing, but literary.
Sounds like a fun class!
Reading some of these comments, I went back and read Dr. Alpert’s article again. I had never read the book he references, but when he described the book’s protagonist as an heroic European physician fighting the plague, in a book called “The Plague,” I presumed he meant “The Plague” – the Black Death. After re-reading his article, Dr. Alpert did not specify a date, and never said The Black Death specifically – he just said The Plague.
So I fear that I have mis-represented his description of the book. I apologize for this error, and if my friends here think it appropriate, I’ll pull this post down off the main feed.
However, I stand by the point of my article, which is that modern American physicians are not in the same situation as physicians in days gone by, treating deadly plagues, with no treatments, which were killing large percentages of the population. I find such comparisons to be absurd.
So let me know if you think I should remove this post. I stand by my point, but my representation of Dr. Alpert’s description of the book was incorrect.
Again, I apologize for my error.
Don’t do that. You had every reason to make the assumption you did about the book, and frankly, trust me, the post is accurate nonetheless.
I love the way these comments read on this thread. The comments are a true snapshot image of the American mind and heart right now. I just love it. It needs to stay.
When this virus began its assault last December, I told my kids I had never lived through anything like this. Usually I have some idea of what’s going on around me, but not this time.
I really love this collection of comments. It is a portrait of America that other accounts can’t capture.
Your only error was the time. It was about a bubonic plague outbreak in Oran. That much is true. My recollection is he described the symptoms in great detail.
What @marcin said.
Really, the only mistake in the OP was with the timeframe. Camus was talking about an (invented) outbreak of bubonic plague, or Black Death, in Oran. (I wish autocorrect would not insist on turning it into “subsonic plague.”) Not having read the book, you assumed a medieval setting. (Occasional outbreaks of the plague continue to this day. When they occur in developed countries, they’re treated with antibiotics; I suspect that others, in other areas, aren’t so fortunate.)
Otherwise, I think your post was pretty much spot on.
Italy has had >150 physicians die from COVID. We have been more fortunate in the US-partially because of the “flattening the curve” efforts- altho much maligned they clearly helped hospitals acquire more PPE (masks etc) before the wave of coronavirus patients hit the hospitals -which was one of the goals of the effort.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-04-italian-doctors-died-virus-association.html
First-world problem.
That plague doesn’t spread as fast as the supersonic plague.
I heard that a squirrel, somewhere – I think in some very remote region – tested positive for bubonic plague. So it’s actually the rodent specialists and experts who have been fighting the plague all this time.
The guy in that article, Dr. TalkyHead, sounds like a dork.
Plague persists in the US, mainly in the Southwest. We have an average of about 7 human cases a year. I was working in a hospital microbiology laboratory in Santa Fe as a grad student when we isolated a case. Kind of makes the hairs stand up on the back of the neck.
I came across a fascinating article on the origins of US plague endemicity while confirming that number. It is a very interesting case of plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (aka, the more things change the more they stay the same). The plague started with a Chinese victim in San Francisco in 1900 and was able to spread largely because the Governor of California refused to believe it was real, fearing economic consequences to the State, and did his best to discredit the physician who made the discovery. That physician, Dr. Joseph Kinyoun, incidentally, is well known to medical microbiology and is considered the father of the National Institutes of Health. As I said..plus ça change…
Dr. B, I agree with She and the others that there is no reason for you to take down the post. Your point was spot on–I was fully agreeing with you in my comments last evening. The dating error didn’t change the point of the post. I do highly recommend reading the book. It’s not very long and is quite readable (possibly depending on the translation–unless you’re able to read it in French). In fact, I might just read it again, so thank you for sending me back to it! I rather liked Camus; he was my favorite of the existentialists. BTW, I took a philosophy course on them in undergrad–as an independent study, which I’ve always found rather amusing (is that one for the nerd jokes group?).
Not all of us are so quick to co-opt the mantle of “hero” as others. I just got a 20% discount at Under Armour for being a physician. They must think I am out there on the front lines battling a deadly foe. The reality is I sit in my office and read x-rays and CT and US on “patients” that are 1700 miles away. (now THAT’S social distancing!) I felt a little sheepish taking the discount.
Don’t feel bad. I’m still a tiny bit miffed at them. When I was in Iraq we were issued underarmor shirts. I was so amazed and thought, “wow, they’ve invented a synthetic material that doesn’t melt into your skin if you are in a fire, because surely Uncle Sam wouldn’t give me a shirt that melts into my skin.” No, they certainly did. Someone bought their shirts and gave them to us in a war zone. I don’t entirely blame under armor, though. The Marine Corps should have known better.
So if you get a 20% discount on their outrageously overpriced clothes, take it and be happy. Just think of the Marines in fires that suffered and think of your savings as a small tithing on their part.
… and don’t get set on fire.
While I do direct patient care in risky procedures, I think the hero label is too widely used. Unlike many, my job & income has been little affected by the pandemic (Other than wearing PPE and washing my hands like an obsessive-compulsive). Although I have had a small decrease in work, I was working more than I liked beforehand. Many of my fellow citizens have suffered a great deal from the economic & social fallout from the pandemic-not to mention those who have been seriously ill. I do not use any of the offered discounts.
We have lost sight, I think, of how little actual control we have over life and death. We are better at lengthening life than we have ever been in human history, but biology follows its own messy rules.
It was in Colorado and why is that news? Bubonic plague is endemic in rodents throughout the Rocky Mountain states. My wife cared for several cases when we lived in New Mexico. It is easily treated with antibiotics; few people die from it now.
Update: Sorry @caryn; I should have read down before posting this.