Reflections

I am writing this article in my pajamas and slippers, quarantined with my roommate in a small Center City apartment. As a Jefferson MD/MPH student, I never thought my public health curriculum would manifest itself in the form of a pandemic before I completed my degree. Wrestling with epidemiological concepts and researching public health policy has morphed into my daily route of understanding current events, in addition to taking the form of graded assignments.

Just before COVID-19 appeared, Jefferson took me on my biggest adventure yet as a visiting student to LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India. The experience transformed my perspective on the human condition and opened my eyes to the magic of global collaboration.  We have a lot to learn from one another.

Of the series of lessons that I learned over those five weeks, the most important one was taught through my relationships with the healthcare workers around me: how deep connections and friendships could form so naturally between people whose backgrounds were starkly different.

I discovered shared humanity with:

• A Liberian ophthalmology resident who had lost several loved ones to Ebola and was a former refugee. Together we experienced the cultural assimilation learning curve.
• An Indian electronic medical record department manager. We talked for hours about the challenges of being a single, career-driven woman in her culture.
• The worldly ophthalmologist who proudly shared his family, city, and passion for innovation. By day, we would see patients, attend meetings, and conduct research. At night, I would spend time with his family immersed in all that Hyderabad has to offer. He treated me as a respected colleague and newly adopted family member.

I was not expecting how effortlessly our relationships progressed from introductions to discussions on topics that deeply mattered to us. Laughter, medicine, and our common humanity (and all its complications) connected us. I discovered that we humans are more alike than we are different.

Our borders are now essentially closed. We are boxed up from the world with no established end date to cling to. The doom and gloom of this virus is infiltrating our inboxes, social media, conversations, and, most importantly, our mental and physical well-being. Luckily, hope has blossomed amidst the chaos—hope that our nation’s health experts are working side by side with other brilliant minds across the world to discover the best way to test, treat and prevent COVID-19.

This crisis has reaffirmed my newfound view of us as citizens of this Earth, an arguably more important allegiance than to our respective nations. The less glamorous side of humanity—our vulnerability, suffering, and fear—can be used as source of connection during this time. Out of dire necessity, global health has moved to the forefront of our priorities, proving that global unity is key for the future health of our world.