[Meredith Coulibaly]

Sadly, I think the COVID 19 pandemic has only increased polarization. Wearing masks is the left’s version of the MAGA hat, a clear indicator of where a person falls on the political spectrum. Most conservatives reject all attempts at controlling the virus in favor of personal freedom. Blue states such as California are just finally lifting outdoor mask requirements, while red states such as Texas and Florida abandoned all restrictions and mandates a long time ago. It’s sad that even the approach to overcoming a pandemic has America divided. Policy should be based on data, however both sides are guilty of manipulating “the science” and cherry-picking data to support their own stance. I feel strongly that the silencing of dissenting voices, censoring and squashing any criticism of the vaccine or mandates is most definitely not science. The very foundation of science is lively debate, presenting hypotheses, questioning, and exploring with your peers until the available data supports one stance or the other. No one person can claim to be “the science” while shutting down or mocking any and all dissenting voices.
I believe that the “political shock wave” scenario is unfolding before our eyes. Parents who were lifelong Democrats are now flocking toward the Republican party, enraged that the schools in their liberal cities were closed far longer than the schools in conservative districts. They are enraged that their children are being forced to wear masks, while schools in red states lifted mask mandates long ago with no negative outcomes. The trucker convoy in Canada saw uncommon alliances of truckers and hippies, people of all races, old and young people, all united in their opposition to vaccine mandates. Many people have abandoned left or right labels, seeing the merits of thinking independently. The pandemic shook up many people’s political ideology, and the repercussions are still playing out.

[Meredith Coulibaly]

I’m going to take on a controversial topic, here we go. It makes me sad that at the onset of the pandemic, nurses and doctors were lauded as heroes (which we were), but now, some are being fired for declining to take the vaccine. The CDC has (finally!) released data which demonstrated that natural immunity is 2.8 times as effective in preventing hospitalization and 3.3 to 4.7 times as effective in preventing Covid infection compared with vaccination. Some doctors and nurses knew this from the beginning, and knew that a vaccine was unnecessary for them if they had already recovered from covid. If the goal is to prevent the spread of Covid from staff to patients, staff who have recovered from Covid are much less likely to contract and spread the virus. So why are those staff being fired? Are vaccine mandates really about public health? Please share your thoughts, DNP colleagues.

[Meredith Coulibaly]

I have kept my admission into a DNP program mostly to myself. However, the coworkers whom I have told have been supportive and encouraging, saying that I will be their boss someday. I think this is because many nurses in my department are pursuing masters degrees. It’s almost become the culture at my workplace to go to graduate school, because we work in an emergency room and we are burnt out. We know we can’t work there forever.

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