BROADCASTS.com

b'Dr. Taison Bell, MD, an acclaimed African-American doctor, educator, and emergency medicine director in Charlottesville, Virginia, shares his personal story of how medicine \\u2013 back home in Virginia \\u2013 became the center of his life. \\u201cSuccess was not assumed in my neighborhood.\\u201d As a child with asthma, he connected with his physician, as he did also with his Black dentist and several teachers. Such \\u201caffirmative experiences\\u201d made the dream \\u201cseem like it was achievable.\\u201d In retrospect, \\u201cso many things had to align at the right place and right time.\\u201d The pandemic now puts a premium on doctors becoming communicators. \\u201cThings will not be the same from this moment forward.\\u201d \\u201cPeople arrive in my ICU because they are unvaccinated\\u2026 People are generally willing to trust their local provider in their community regardless of what side of the aisle they are on.\\u201d But \\u201ceveryone has an opinion, some spread by misinformation.\\u201dA recent conspiracy alleges doctors put patients on ventilators to intentionally make them sicker. \\u201cThat has become one of the toughest parts of care.\\u201d You have to have a \\u201ctherapeutic alliance\\u201d and trust with the patient and family. When those do not exist, it almost always does not end well. Boosters a good thing? Yes, though \\u201ceveryone has good points.\\u201d Talking openly about how he makes decisions with his family during the pandemic makes him \\u201crelatable.\\u201d It opens a window into how he is processing things.\\xa0\\nDr. Taison Bell, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of Infectious Diseases and International Health and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia. He is also the Director of the medical intensive care unit (ICU) and director of the UVA Summer Medical Leadership Program.'