THE SKY WAS FALLING

Testimony from the front lines of the pandemic.

Completing a pediatric surgery fellowship at a major New York City hospital, Griggs kept a diary, from February 2020 until her graduation in July, to record her experiences as Covid-19 emerged and surged. The hospital responded by canceling elective surgeries and starting each day with a briefing about the latest guidelines for testing and quarantine, which kept changing. Quickly, workers’ frustration mounted over the severe lack of masks, protective gear, and ventilators. On March 17, Griggs voiced that frustration in “The Sky Is Falling,” an op-ed piece published in the New York Times. Media attention led to interviews, and throughout the spring, Griggs found herself a spokesperson/whistleblower, sometimes receiving sharp rebukes from other surgeons. “A misstep on Twitter,” she realized, “could cost me my career.” The pandemic deeply affected her views on her profession. “Like many healthcare workers,” she writes, “I lost the illusion that my own life and work was paramount to my employer.” Inequity and patient overload caused many to quit. “The worst part about working in healthcare since the start of the pandemic,” she reflects, “has been the mass exodus of so many brilliant, dedicated doctors, nurses, and other professionals from the clinical practice of medicine.” The author is candid about the stress of motherhood, her desperate desire to protect her children, the isolation she felt when she sent them out of the city to stay with her parents, and her loneliness for her husband, a surgeon in Boston. She hopes her memoir will serve as a warning: “The speed at which we shift from casual concern to full-blown disaster mode is just wild,” she wrote in March. It could happen again.

A sharp critique of the health care system and a valuable record of the early days of the pandemic.