Covid-19: A Retrospective
COVID-19 taught us a lot. Researchers learned to study while advising. Health care providers learned to prevent and treat while constantly fine-tuning or completely changing their approaches, based on new learnings. And the general public learned about the importance of front-line workers, from health care providers to food deliverers. In this podcast, we hear the doctor’s perspective from Infectious Diseases physician Gopi Patel, MD.
[00:00:03] Stephen Calabria: From the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, this is Road to Resilience, a podcast about facing adversity. I'm your host, Stephen Calabria, Mount Sinai's, director of podcasting. On this episode, to observe the fifth anniversary of the Covid pandemic, we welcome Gopi Patel, MD.
[00:00:20] As the hospital epidemiologist for the Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Patel was on the front lines in battling the Covid outbreak. She worked countless hours over those first few weeks and months, meeting with patients, advising and counseling staff, and lending her knowledge in the fight against the virus.
[00:00:37] Her leadership through the crisis, as well as her personal grit and determination, are hallmarks of resilience. We're honored to welcome Dr. Gopi Patel to the show.
[00:00:48] Dr. Gopi Patel, welcome to Road to Resilience.
[00:00:52] Gopi Patel: Thanks for having me.
[00:00:54] Stephen Calabria: Among several roles you serve here at the Mount Sinai Hospital as the hospital epidemiologist. Could you tell us what that entails?
[00:01:03] Gopi Patel: Sure. That's the medical advisor to a group of wonderful individuals who we refer to as infection preventionists. In terms of preventing hospital acquired infections, making sure our patients don't get sicker in the hospital,, but also making sure our staff is safe from the transmission of infections.
[00:01:27] Stephen Calabria: Now you were here in the lead up to the pandemic in 2020. What was your first inkling that this was going to be a serious problem?
[00:01:39] Gopi Patel: I think we were hearing from other places in the world about just the utter devastation that it was having on the healthcare system. And even the chatter within New York City amongst individuals in roles like my own, was that we as a healthcare system, not saying Mount Sinai, I'm talking about the United States Healthcare System, wasn't prepared for what was coming.