The 2022 sign is displayed in Times Square in New York on Dec. 20, 2021. Dallas physician Lauren Fine encourages us to adopt a New Year's resolution of displaying intellectual humility.In April, while waiting for a safe time to travel, and having not seen her father since “pre-COVID,” my friend, an emergency room physician in California, lost her father to a heart attack in Maryland.
Every day we make thousands of decisions, perhaps tens of thousands. We make these decisions based on what we think we know at the time. In 2021, on a global scale, it became clear how quickly truth can evolve. The truth of droplet transmission succumbed to a greater understanding of airborne spread. The truth of the initial impressive COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in preventing disease and transmission became tempered by new variants of coronavirus.
This is not to say that our initial truths were lies or conspiracies, but that science allows us to continuously study and learn from the world around us. Our understanding of our world must change with time because life is not static; nor should our knowledge be. As a physician, I have physician friends with widely different beliefs about how we should be proceeding with life at this time. I have some physician friends who feel we should be testing ourselves all the time to slow spread and keep loved ones safe.