The nasty virus that has killed millions throughout the world and devastated lives, livelihoods and the economies of the entire world, originated from Wuhan China, and that is without question.  In fact, The Chinese government sent flights of Chinese nationals living in Wuhan province to the U.S after the Wuhan province outbreak, but in order not to infect the rest of China, did not allow flights from Wuhan to other parts of China.  Let the rest of the world be infected as well, you think?  The origins have unfortunately become politicized and I don’t intend to get into it too much here, except to say it is obvious that it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and our NIH funding was somehow involved in gain of function research.

But I’m not pointing fingers.  And the emperor is certainly wearing clothes, right?

I am a physician who works in a certain hospital in the southern part of the northeastern section of the Atlanto-pacific mountainous-plains region and I took care of many critically ill patients who required mechanical ventilation (life support), that had a high rate of mortality in certain populations early on, with unfortunately, many significant medical complications associated with prolonged hospital care.  This included respiratory failure, renal failure, venous thrombosis and arterial thrombosis (clots), strokes, encephalopathy and cardiac failure.

My job was to take care of them as the leader of the excellent health care team, and try to keep the family informed along the way, best I could, since families were not allowed to come to the hospital during the peak of the outbreak (s) and sadly, could not even come to visit their loved ones in their rooms if they were in terminal stages, due to visitation restrictions.

So, I wrote hundreds and hundreds of medical notes on the charts of these patients every day, describing the medical situation, diagnosis, labs and treatment plans.  After writing hundreds of thousands of words and paragraphs, and using the words COVID-19 thousands of times, I decided that everyone would understand if I called it instead, Wuhan virus, instead, giving the readers eyes a break from the dreaded COVID-19 descriptor.  I might have written WUHAN virus on my charts maybe five times, no wait, ten times or hell, I don’t know, maybe 15 times just to see if anyone read my notes for one thing, and the other, just to give the reader a break from reading the C word incessantly.  You see, writers hate using the same word 10,000 times.

Yes, I know, I am a full-time doctor and only a part time writer.

After all, its ok I thought, because the original descriptor of the virus in January and February of 2020 was the Wuhan virus – a word used many times by our government and other more erudite sources, since it factually originated in Wuhan China, just like the Spanish flu years ago.  Then of course, it was speciated as a coronavirus, SARS-Covid -19, the more common name.

So, it turns out people do read my notes, since I must say, I take pride in writing good and readable notes.  Many doctors talked to me about this and laughed, and congratulated me on using this word Wuhan.  These doctors of course, shall remain nameless so they will not be investigated by the now politicized FBI and sent to prison. Thankfully, these doctors did not then make the horrible mistake of writing the word Wuhan.  You can never think, or laugh about these kinds of things, if these are not sanctioned laughs that fit the popular narrative. And if you dare to laugh, it is mandatory you do it in the bathroom with the fan running and sink water draining..  I must admit, some doctors even have a tendency to copy pieces of my notes and use them themselves as their notes, but I am not sure if they deleted the nasty word I wrote before the copy was completed.

And I learned something else.  Wuhan virus is not a sanctioned word in my large hospital system!  Apparently, it offends some people.  And these people are apparently paid by the hospital system to read silly doctor’s notes to see if these rogue doctors are using sanctioned words or not, because after all, aren’t sanctioned words more important than saving lives?

So yes, I was ‘written-up’ by some employee for not using a sanctioned word that might upset the Chinese and the administration called me out on that and a complaint against me was filed.  So, I was told to cease and desist. However, since I said nothing wrong, except the glaring truth, I was told not to use this word anymore.  I did not take this well, and it is no one’s business to tell a doctor what to do or say in his notes ever, unless it is 1) factually incorrect or 2) vulgar.  So, I called a certain administrator and asked this person what the deal was.  I asked what I did or said wrong.  This person who I now am told I can’t call he or she but must say (birthing person, or it) told me it was “unusual” and that it offends people.  I asked if I had to stop because, after all, I believe it is inappropriate to accuse a doctor of saying something incorrect in the chart, when in fact, it was correct.  I told them I had the right to say Wuhan any time I wanted. And that I would continue if I wanted.  

They backed down and did not force the issues, but wanted me to “Play nicely in the sand box”

We must not let a certain segment of society dictate the words we must say or use, or stifle our speech, or suppress thoughtful opposition, or we will in fact, lose our great country, or the world for that matter.

© SRCarson 2022