Dr Yvonne Wang's blabberings: April 2020

The Passover/Easter long weekend

With the COVID19 shut downs, this year’s Passover is more similar to Exodus 12:22 than the usual Passovers. “…None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.” Tried celebrating it the “Messianic Jew” style (=Christian Jews)!

https://www.celebratemessiah.com.au/live/

Looking at Exodus 12 in more detail, there seems to be some parallels between the Passover, the Christian life, and the current COVID19 pandemic.

1. Israelites must stay home when disaster struck Egypt: people must stay home to avoid catching COVID-19.

2. Eating lamb: “eating Jesus,” where we study the Word of God and developing a closer relationship with Christ. If we don’t spend time connecting with God now, when the pandemic is over, we will “remain in Egypt,” as we will not have enough strength to “leave Egypt”. (In the bible, Egypt is often used as an metaphor for the world.)

3. Eating bitter herbs: For the Israelites to remember how their ancestors endured hardship in Egypt and thank God for delivering them. Christians should be prepared to face hardship and learn how to depend on God in these difficult times.

4. Eating unleavened bread: During the Exodus, it was because the Israelites did not have enough time to wait for the bread to rise. Yeast as a metaphor of sin: getting rid of sin, living a simpler life with a greater appetite for spiritual things over materialistic things.

5. Sojourners: Like sojourners, our stay in any one place is transient. The world is not our home.

6. The ten plaques forced the pharaoh to let the Israelites go, so they can leave Egypt and serve God: The COVID-19 pandemic shakes us as we are forced to adjust to a different way of life. This can result in a shift in our mindsets and make us see things from a new perspective. Some of us begin to reflect more on our relationship with God and issues related to life and death.

7. Judgement on all the gods of Egypt: The COVID-19 pandemic impacts the world in many ways. It has already adversely impacted global economy, disrupted education and work, and even caused several countries’ health systems to collapse. With the social distancing rules, people have to change the way they socialise. Church buildings suddenly became empty: state of the art church buildings and concert-like worship no longer seem to be of any use in the current situation. It is a time for people to reflect on whether their lives and ministries are built on a solid rock. As people are forced into isolation, away from the noise, some people find that they can better hear God’s voice when they seek God in a quiet space.

The Exodus vs today:

Israelites: The preparation of the people of God so they can enter into the promised land.

Christians: The people of God, learning to relate with and serve God, and experiencing revival (individual, local, national and global level).

In the Passover custom, the Jews try to get rid of all the yeasts in their house, as yeast is a metaphor for sin. Rather than getting rid of yeast, I got rid of moulds over the Easter long weekend! When I was sorting through my clothes in my closet, I discovered that the wall behind the clothes became moulded! Took the opportunity to reorganise my clothes and pack up some of the clothes that either no longer fits or are too old. Realised that my buttocks had grown so big I could no longer fit into most of my jeans! Reorganised many things in my house. Finally had the opportunity to clean my room to the point where it is the cleanest it’s ever been in my life! I also YouTube searched ways to fix my Nespresso machine, which broke many years ago, and got my husband to fix it according to the video.

Watched a few episodes of “The Chosen,” starting off from the episode five which is on the Wedding in Cana (I had already watched the first four episodes last year).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaeSz8m8MXVX-HiuZbGQ1u_YXL-Arfy-Q

This Jesus series is quite different from the usual movies about Jesus in that the followers of Jesus were illustrated in a more 3D fashion in their character development, which makes the whole thing seem a lot more personal.

23 April, 2020

The Australian COVID-19 graph have stayed pretty flat for quite some time (very few new cases each day). This could be one of those rare opportunities where we could get a property for a bargain price. And so that was what we did. Life suddenly flowed into my husband the moment he signed the contract, turning from sleepy to manic. He began drawing all sorts of impressive pictures of the dream home, both 2D and 3D, on the computer! And not just some random sketches, but very professional stuff!

28 April, 2020

Thank God things didn't turn out so bad in Australia. The NSW premier has announced today that the NSW coronavirus lockdown will be relaxed slightly on Friday, 1May, so that groups of two adults will be able to visit other households for social gathering. It is great to see that we will soon be "passing over" April, into the Pentecost in May! And it will be nice to catch up with some people.

Completed my MDiv April 2019 and waited nearly a year for the once yearly graduation ceremony. Glad that the Morling College graduation ceremony happened before all the shut downs.

21 March, 2020

The weather was >30oC yesterday and photographers captured photos of Bondi Beach being filled with people. What’s going on? Did these people think that high temperatures will kill the virus? Anyway, the beach got shut down today.

I’ve also been seeing ambulances on the road more frequently than usual in the last few days. The number of people infected in Australia has exceeded 1000 today! But I think this is only the tip of the iceberg, because based on the previous coronavirus swab testing criteria, many mild community acquired cases have slipped through undetected.

I wonder if Australia will start shutting down states and even suburbs soon…

Church service has been changed into online-mode!

Tried doing body combat in my room, but the room is too small and I kept bumping into things accidentally. Got a big bruise on my arm now!

23 March, 2020

People swarmed to Centrelink due to unemployment. People seemed to be standing very close to each other as well!

So many people also swarmed into the clinic to have flu vaccine or do some "last minute things" in relation to their medical conditions that I felt like I was about to have a heart attack! Fortunately, our clinic is in the process of transitioning into telephone consultation for the majority of our patients, especially since we already have a few "vulnerable doctors" who are allowed to do phone consultations for all of their patients via Medicare. It might be a good time to get pregnant!

25 March, 2020

Free coffee at McDonald's for healthcare workers! Got one today! Normally I'd rebuke my hubby if he gets something from Mackers, but I really gotta thank Mackers for this one!

Coles opens up special shopping hours for health workers and firefighters, thanks Coles!

From next week onward, all patients can call their GPs for phone consultations under Medicare. I gotta thank the government for protecting GPs from COVID19 so the GP workforce don't get wiped out by the virus! Vaccinations can't be done over the phone, and this strategy better enables us to do vaccinations on healthy people and reduce people's risk of catching COVID19 when they do come in.

I'm feeling quite worried for people working in the ED/ICU/Anaesthetics/Respiratory medicine/Infectious disease/ENT though... May God protect these people!

I think social distancing and home isolation where possible is a very good thing for the human population! Not only does it make COVID19 die out, it makes many other types of viruses die out too! And with less people out and about, the earth actually gets a bit of a break from pollution!

I am surprised to learned that Australia has one of the highest testing rates for COVID19 in the world! I thought many community acquired cases could be falling through the cracks, but we are actually doing quite well! That could be why our death rate is pretty low... Maybe countries like Italy have a much much higher number of infected people than the numbers we have seen in the statistics!!!

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2020/03/24/coronavirus-test-kits-australia/

26 March, 2020

I think most doctors would have emphasised to the patients undergoing COVID19 testing to self-isolate until their results come out, but it seems like some patients just don’t comply! I think people booked in for COVID19 swab test appointments should be entered into a registry and tracked by the police to make sure they do not get out of their house until they receive their test results via the phone! And they should get fined if they go out!

Spain has now become badly impacted by the coronavirus, and there are people there who pretend to be dogs so they can get out and walk about! How stupid can people get?

https://twitter.com/Talaverano78/status/1241663913378426882

27 March, 2020

The US has surpassed China in cases numbers!

https://udn.com/news/story/120944/4447344

Today is exactly two months since I first started wearing masks at work. It’s been a tough two months so far. There has been a significant financial impact on GP practices in Eastwood since January, when this suburb became very quiet due to people’s fears about the COVID19. No patients = no income for me, as I earn a percentage of billings. If the government hadn’t allowed us to bill telephone consult via Medicare, I would have had to seek for locum jobs. I am thankful that the principal doctors in our clinic had been very forward thinking: quick to secure some masks, quick to convert to telephone consultations early on, and quick to organise flu vaccines for patients in a very systematic way.

Been sending more patients to 4Cyte pathology to get COVID19 tests. People getting tested do not need to get out of their cars, and the results come out very fast! Now that’s efficiency. I’m still quite amazed that our clinic has not diagnosed any positive coronavirus cases despite the vast amount of testings done.

28 March, 2020

Completed the COVID19 infection control training. However, I disagree with the recommendation about the masks in there. It’s common sense that masks do have a protective effect. I think people who have to go to places known to have community outbreaks should be wearing masks!

https://www.health.gov.au/resources/apps-and-tools/covid-19-infection-control-training

These days I feel like I’m going off to war zone every day, armed with face shield, mask and scrubs. My husband is the domestic one, and his belly is growing bigger and bigger day by day.

29March, 2020

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined in with the National Day of Prayer and Fasting Zoom Prayers.

https://www.nationaldayofprayer.org.au/

1 April, 2020

On 18 March, I read the news about doctors being stranded on a CPD cruise ship, including famous ED doctor Dr Fulde. I wondered what will become of them.

https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/73-doctors-stranded-aussie-cpd-cruise-ship-after-covid19-lockdown

Well, the ship had returned to Australia. Doctors in quarantine got placed in nice hotels but are not allowed the access the nice facilities. "My Muscle Chef" meals are left outside their doors. The doctors talk to each other via Whatsapp. Some doctors started doing telehealth consultations whilst in quarantine. No maintenance staff are allowed in, so people are just washing their clothes in sinks.

https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/life-enforced-quarantine-doctor-cpd-cruise-ship-reveals-all

2 April, 2020

With the shutdowns, people are not allowed to leave their houses unless it is for essential travel, or to exercise. Saw someone I know out for a morning walk when I drove past Corunna Road on my way to work in Eastwood… Wait a sec, Corunna? Sounds very familiar… similar to a word which we kept hearing in the news lately!

3 April, 2020

Glad I didn't have to do this for my MDiv graduation ceremony, because this thing they’re doing in Japan actually looks like an Asian funeral:

https://www.setn.com/News.aspx?NewsID=719197

5 April, 2020

Taiwan has been amazing in the way it managed the COVID19 crisis. Although researchers at John Hopkins had predicted that Taiwan would be the second most severely impacted country due to it’s proximity to China, it is actually one of countries with the lowest rates currently. Initially, I felt pretty proud about the good job my home country had done.

https://youtu.be/-K_d0WFKQSo

However, now I think Taiwan is getting too arrogant about this success. There’s no social distancing rules in place there. People in Taiwan have just had their long weekend holidays, and people have been CROWDING to various hot spots! This is a very worrying sign.

Meanwhile, the COVID19 curve of Australia seems to be flattening.

9 April, 2020

There is a new respiratory clinic close to where I live: The WiSE Respiratory Clinic has been operating in Macquarie Park since 21 March. They had seen approximately 500 patients since first opening, and only had to do physical examination on 10-20% of the patients seen. People coming via cars arrive at the boom gate at their designated appointment times and are let in. They wait in the car. People who did not arrive by car just wait in a tent. There are four consultation rooms: Two green ones where you can potentially do physical examination on patients who you deem as low risk. Two red ones where nurses do swabs on because you have a stronger suspicion about them having COVID19. It is meant to be a GP clinic where interested GPs participate in the roster. You can participate in as little as one shift only, or you can take on regular shifts. But you can only do one four-hour shift a day as a maximum. The PPE is pretty good there and some GPs actually think it’s safer for them to work in this clinic compared to their own clinics. The current roster is already full until May.

https://www.wisemedical.com.au/respiratory-clinic