MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

3 reasons why this is a great time to be president of FMMS

1. We are in the middle of a pandemic

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Gaede, MD is board certified in Internal Medicine and fellowship trained in vascular medicine. He is a varicose vein specialist with extensive training and years of experience practicing vascular medicine. Dr. Gaede earned his medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine. His residency was completed at University of California, San Francisco, Fresno and his fellowship at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Our medical society came into being to help address crises just like this one. In the late 1800s, small pox was still a world-wide scourge. And yes, there was vaccination hesitancy then too. FMMS stepped up to create a community-wide small pox vaccination program.

Fast forward to 2021: one of the primary goals of our medical society is encouraging everyone in our Valley to “take their best shot”—get vaccinated. I don’t recall ever feeling more enthused about our medical society than when working with our Vaccine Acceptance Committee as we collaborate with the Fresno County Public Health Department to promote COVID-19 vaccination. We’ve developed several vaccination PSAs, and recruited people like Jerry Dyer (Fresno mayor), DJ Criner (prominent Fresno black minister), John Binaski, Fire Chief City of Clovis (English) to “star” in them. We also have PSAs in multiple languages including Juan G. Bautista, MD (English and Spanish), Jose L. Bautista, MD (English and Spanish), Oscar Sablan, MD (English), Alexander Sanborn (American Sign Language), Tou Mouanoutoua, MD (Hmong), Pao Yang, CEO of Fresno Center (Hmong), and Sukhjit Dhillon, MD (Punjabi). Keep an eye out for these PSAs—they’re coming soon to a TV screen near you!

PSAs help, but we physicians are our patients’ best source of information about the vaccine. In speaking to my patients about it, I’ve learned that sometimes you have to bite your tongue and listen before you start sermonizing. Recently, I was winding up a follow-up visit of my 50-ish male patient:

“Hey by the way, do you have any questions about the COVID-19 vaccine?”

He paused. “Well, my wife and I have been talking about it and we’re not sure we’re going to get it.”

I paused, thinking “What?? You’re not going to take the vaccine that our country just spent billions of dollars developing and is our only hope of saving thousands and thousands of lives--including your elderly parents--and getting our economy back on track??!!!”

But instead, I simply said, “Uh, ok. So--what kind of concerns do you have?”

“I don’t know--we’ve read some stuff about people getting sick from the vaccine. Plus, we figure we’re both pretty healthy, and so even if we got COVID, we’d probably get over it and be ok.”

“Well, I’m really glad you’re checking things out before you just jump in. Those are good things to consider.”

He nodded and smiled.

“Fortunately, the vaccine has undergone really extensive testing on tens of thousands of people and has been found to be very, very safe. In fact, I’ve already had both doses myself, and only had minimal side effects.”

We talked a bit more. On the way out, he turned to me and said, “Thanks so much for taking the time to explain that to me!”

I felt better too, with the knowledge that I had listened instead before I preached, and because of that, he and his wife might get vaccinated when their time comes.

Furthermore, while some of us physicians are on the front lines treating COVID patients in hospitals and ICUs, and others are prescribing monoclonal antibody to keep our COVID patients from going into the hospital, and others are volunteering at the Fresno fairgrounds to administer vaccines, FMMS and CMA have been very active in making sure our physicians have adequate supplies of PPE. It’s very rewarding to be part of this historic effort.

2. As our nation struggles with racial and gender issues, the makeup of our Board of Governors has never been more diverse.

At a recent meeting, someone remarked that he wished more young ethnic minorities could see the faces of our board members, to help them realize that they too have a place in the field of medicine.

In keeping with that theme, our medical society is supporting a new program at UCSF Fresno that seeks to diversify their surgical training programs to reflect the underserved and underrepresented patient population that they care for. They have set up an internship program for local pre-med students that will assist them in getting admission into medical school. We hope to support other similar efforts around our Valley.

3. We are about to confront another effort to overturn

MICRA

Next year, plaintiff’s attorneys plan to place a proposition on the ballot that would overturn the cap on non-economic damages (currently set at $250,000). The cost of medical care would rise significantly, and as a consequence our communities would have more trouble getting the care they need.

I paid less than $6,000 for my malpractice insurance this year. If I practiced in Miami, I would be paying $47,000 for similar coverage. Like the COVID-19 pandemic, this ill-conceived proposition is just the kind of threat that our medical society and the California Medical Association were created to defend. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” I look forward to working with all of you, my colleagues, to keep our malpractice premiums reasonable and our medical practices flourishing.