End of Year Reflections from a Winter Solstice Baby

Three Things Thursday

Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week.

It is officially sick season — the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19, flu, and RSV are increasing. A lot of people are sick. And the number of people asking for advice on how to celebrate the upcoming holidays safely is increasing. While the numbers are increasing, Dr. Mandy Cohen, Director of the CDC, notes —

“ We expected to see more viruses, we expected to see more COVID and flu and RSV, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. I think we are still too early in the season to really compare to last year to characterize whether this is a bad season or not. What I’d say [is that] right now is pretty typical… We are constantly monitoring around the world to make sure we’re understanding what health threats are out there. What we can say right now is that we’re not seeing any new or novel viruses or bacteria. What we’re seeing around the world is pretty typical for this time of year — which is more viruses that we know, more bacteria that we know.”

Here are my words of advice as we head into some of the busiest weeks of the year. We can take steps to prevent the spread of disease through many actions. We can —

Get vaccinated

Wash our hands

Lay low (and avoid crowded places)

Wear a mask

Commit to staying home when we are sick.

There are no perfect answers; there is no foolproof way to avoid getting sick during this sick season. We can reduce our risk, but these are contagious viruses that have evolved to spread easily from person to person. These viruses are good at what they do and sometimes, despite our best efforts to avoid getting sick, we get sick.

I think we need to have open conversations with those we are celebrating the holidays with. As we are planning dinner times, gift exchanges, and travel plans — we should also be discussing how to stay healthy together throughout the holidays. If you are healthy but are spending the holidays with someone who is high-risk (a newborn baby, elderly individual, or someone who is immunocompromised) ask them what precautions they’d like you to take to protect them and make them comfortable with gathering over the holidays. If you are at high risk for severe complications associated with respiratory illnesses, please communicate with those whom you plan to gather with what you need to be healthy and feel comfortable gathering.

We should adjust our behaviors and plans to protect our friends and family who are at greatest risk from severe illness caused by these respiratory viruses.

Please refer to my Recipe for a Happy Thanksgiving as you prepare for the upcoming holidays. Nothing has changed. The recipe for being healthy is the same today as it was in November.

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In addition to the upcoming holidays, today I am celebrating my birthday.

Yes, I am a Winter Solstice Baby.

While I am paying attention to the public health news this week, I am also taking a moment to reflect on the past year. And for today’s Three Things Thursday, I’m sharing three things I loved about 2023.

First — beginning in May, I decided to take an Internet Sabbath once a week. Specifically, I turned off my computer and turned off my phone each Sunday. And since May, I have spent every Sunday (except one when I needed to meet virtually with a colleague) offline. I’ve spent time cooking, hanging out with my family, reading, going to yoga, and enjoying my real life. It has been glorious.

I highly recommend that everyone establish an Internet Sabbath in 2024.

I will continue to be offline each Sunday throughout 2024.

Second (and tied directly to my weekly Internet Sabbath) — I have rekindled my love of reading. Real books. Hard covers. Pages you can touch with your fingers.

I am currently reading Together: The healing power of human connection in a sometimes lonely world by Dr. Vivek Murthy. It is all about the loneliness epidemic we are in the midst of. I highly recommend it. And I will have a full book review in early 2024 when I am finished. Simultaneously, I am rereading Beating Back the Devil: On the front lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna. I will be reading this book with my students in the spring.

During 2023, I also read and highly recommend that you start reading —

• Complications: A surgeon’s notes on imperfect science by Atul Gawande.

• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
  Honestly, the best fiction book I’ve read in ages. So good that there were days when I couldn’t put the book down and I sobbed at the end. It was beautiful in every way. It is a must-read!

• My Own Country: A doctor’s story (also) by Abraham Verghese

Finally — as a family, we discovered that we love to adventure together. We love to bike, hike, walk, and explore the world together. We love being outside together. We love picnics and blue skies; visiting friends and beautiful places around the world.

Family time on our bikes during the summer of 2023

Knowing that traveling and spending time in nature and beautiful spaces is helping us plan more trips that will bring us all joy and allow us to be together. We are planning trips — big and small — for 2024 that will bring us together and outside. We’ll be biking, hiking, kayaking, swimming, and sailing in 2024. And we’ll be doing it together.

I cannot wait.

My wish for you on my birthday —

May you find time away from your devices.
And may you find family and friends to spend quality time with.
May you get lost in a good book.
May you get outside to enjoy blue skies, fresh air, and the beautiful colors of nature.
And may you be kind to yourself.
And kind to others.

Thank you for spending your time with me and celebrating my birthday through this reflection. I am grateful that you come back each week (and sometimes more often) to read what I have to say.

Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.

Questions? or have a book recommendation for me? Please leave a comment —

NOTE: Lessons in Chemistry and The Courage to be Disliked are on my “to read” list.

And please share this with your friends and family, especially those you will be celebrating the holidays with. This post can be the icebreaker you need to start a conversation about how to have a healthy holiday together.