I Am Not Comfortable with This: 2020 Scudder Oration on Trauma

Abstract

Past orators have covered a wide variety of topics in the field of trauma surgery, and I hope I will call some of them to mind during my presentation. But I begin this talk with some comments on the most unusual situation in which we find ourselves this year, in the midst of a pandemic infection striking 30 million people worldwide, caused more than 1 million deaths, and sparing no corner of the world¹ World Health Organization Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCb5iHt0aBrDDo3jJar2fo_5EK4WeI6KP9vQMX2Og_5upV_jtWrmQeAhoCJ4wQAvD_BwE Date accessed: September 30, 2020 Google Scholar (Fig. 2). The sheer volume of information about the epidemiology, clinical course, and biology of this virus is at once breathtaking and overwhelming. Enough!, we scream almost daily with the onslaught of input on the pandemic, societal woes and polar political objectives, historical and deadly fires in the West and hurricanes in the South and East, and other disasters; and that abbreviated list only represents the American aneurysm of pain, and skirts the global problems of pollution and waste, overpopulation, famine, and armed conflicts. Figure 2 COVID cases worldwide as of September 5, 2020. Reprinted with permission from the WHO. ¹ World Health Organization Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCb5iHt0aBrDDo3jJar2fo_5EK4WeI6KP9vQMX2Og_5upV_jtWrmQeAhoCJ4wQAvD_BwE Date accessed: September 30, 2020 Google Scholar View Large Image Figure Viewer Download Hi-res image Download (PPT)