#Sick November 27

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The pandemic has taught us that prevention (Wear-Wait-Wash) sometimes is the best strategy to avoid getting SICK. Despite that the world, including me wants a vaccine. We have all come to rely on a cure for when we get SICK rather than eliminating the cause of why we get SICK.

I watched a TED Talk recently by a South Central LA Doctor named Rishi Manchanda. He gave remarks on what might be making us SICK. He wants the health field to look upstream for the cause not just treat the symptoms they find downstream.

Rishi has also created an organization called Health Begins

He told a story that should make all of us think. I have quoted it below.

This is a parable of three friends. Imagine that you’re one of these three friends who come to a river. It’s a beautiful scene, but it’s shattered by the cries of a child, and actually several children, in need of rescue in the water. So you do hopefully what everybody would do. You jump right in along with your friends. The first friend says, I’m going to rescue those who are about to drown, those at most risk of falling over the waterfall. The second friends says, I’m going to build a raft. I’m going to make sure that fewer people need to end up at the waterfall’s edge. Let’s usher more people to safety by building this raft, coordinating those branches together. Over time, they’re successful, but not really, as much as they want to be. More people slip through, and they finally look up and they see that their third friend is nowhere to be seen. They finally spot her. She’s in the water. She’s swimming away from them upstream, rescuing children as she goes, and they shout to her, “Where are you going? There are children here to save.” And she says back, “I’m going to find out who or what is throwing these children in the water.”

We all can get SICK in a lot of ways. Not just physically but mentally and emotionally. We all would be wise to look at the social and environmental conditions that might be the cause of us not feeling 100%.