What It Felt Like To Get The Vaccine

Evictions Feed The Pandemic ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( December 20, 2020 Dear Cog reader, This week, Dr. Joshua Barocas became one of the first people in the country to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As he waited bare-armed for his shot, his mind flashed back through the past 10 months, and he was overwhelmed by emotions — sorrow, gratitude, amazement and hope. He remembered the early virus reports from France and Italy, when ICUs overflowed and ventilators were rationed. He remembered leaving his wife and children for days as he helped set up isolation and quarantine sites around Boston. He remembered the people who have been away from loved ones, unable to embrace in times of happiness and in times of grief. It’s a beautiful [piece]( written by a doctor who’s worked on the front line of this pandemic. Sara Shukla is also thinking about the last nine months, and what her family has learned to carry. “I’m reminding myself that what we do doesn’t have to be normal to be nourishing. It just has to get us through,” [she writes](. We also have a group of health and housing experts on the devastation of [pandemic-era evictions]( a call by health care leaders for Massachusetts to adopt the [Safe Communities Act]( a sharp critique of men who refuse to call women by the [professional and academic titles]( they’ve earned; and a meditation on [Christmas decorations](. We'll be back next week with a special round up of Cog's best pieces of 2020. — Cloe Axelson Cognoscenti, editor newsletters@wbur.org Must Reads url[Pulled By Hope And Grief: What It Felt Like To Get The Vaccine]( As I stared at the small glass vial, time slowed down, writes Dr. Joshua Barocas. In that moment, I thought of the past 10 months. [Read more](   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [The Safe Communities Act Isn’t Only About Immigration. It Will Protect Public Health]( Nobody should ever fear going to a doctor and receiving the care they need — especially in the middle of a pandemic, write Dr. David Rosman and Michael Curry. [Read more]( [What We've Learned To Carry In These 9 Brutal Months]( Slogging through nine months of a pandemic requires you to hold the ordinary and the unfathomable in your hands, writes Sara Shukla. Even when it’s steady, it’s work. [Read more](  Support the news [A Very Melania Christmas]( A meditation on Christmas decorations in the time of COVID and climate change. [Read more]( [You Can Dismiss 'Jill' — But Not Dr. Biden. That's The Point]( "Jill" will take and type up the meeting minutes. "Jill" will give up some of her hiring budget. It is harder to ask "Dr. Biden" to do all of those things, writes Dr. Monya De. [Read more]( [Evictions Feed The Pandemic]( Without housing, the most basic and effective interventions — staying home when sick and maintaining social distance — become impossible. [Read more]( Bookmarks "I couldn't focus on the bigness of it. I just had to know that we were headed in the right direction. And I had to ask myself, What did I have in front of me that I had to accomplish? You can’t let yourself get distracted in the abstract." ("[Glennon Doyle and Biden Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon on Politics, Motherhood, and Doing Hard Things]( Glamour) "Don’t allow him to become a self-styled president in exile, the golf-cart version of Napoleon on Elba." ("[Journalists, it’s time for a cold-turkey breakup with Trump]( Washington Post) "Americans who are desperate to see their loved ones need advice that goes beyond 'Just say no.'” ("[The Danger of Assuming That Family Time Is Dispensable]( The Atlantic) “ "In the spring, I felt ambushed, trapped in my house. Now I just feel lucky to be here." — Sara Shukla, "[What We've Learned To Carry In These 9 Brutal Months]( ICYMI [I'm Empathetic To My Patients' Concerns About The COVID Vaccine. I'll Encourage Them To Get It Anyway]( My patients' fears about the vaccine are borne from the country's shameful medical history, writes Dr. Pamela Adelstein. [Read more](      If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news [WBUR]( [WBUR]  [WBUR]( [95289b97-66e8-43d4-a174-3bc3520a79a9.png]( [Instagram](  [Twitter]( [Facebook]( Want to change how you receive these emails? 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