Health: Keep calm and keep washing your hands

It has been an interesting few weeks to say the least. We have all felt the changes that have occurred as our state, county, city and health care system to fight the coronavirus. The pandemic has overwhelmed health systems in other parts of the country and world. I am happy to see that this has not been the case in our state.

We should be proud of the steps that our state has taken early to prevent a large wave of patients. These steps have been painful for everyone, but they are going to prevent a greater harm to our society in the long run.

This pandemic is unlike anything in our lifetime. It is a new virus to which we have to direct and apply our best sciences to understand the design and how it interacts in our body. Scientists all over the world are working in labs on these problems while the health care providers are trying to understand what treatments work and don’t work to help those who are sick. The more we can learn, the better we can do about containing this pandemic. The Minnesota Department of Health has been offering good information and detailed data about the cases and testing in our state.

We should be proud of the work our state and community has done. With this work, we have shifted the curve. This gives us time to prepare, make plans, to gather equipment. We have been trying to predict when the peak of the outbreak would hit our state and community. At first, we were concerned that it could have been here in late March or April. With the work we have done it has been moved back to potentially the summer. This is great news.

The hard part will be keeping up the vigilance and continuing to do what is asked of us. It is always hard to know what the future holds, but know that we are working hard to provide the best care for our community.

Thank you for your sacrifice, and keep washing your hands.

Dr. Ken Ripp is a family medicine physician at the Raiter Clinic in Cloquet