Dr. Virginia Banks: Following Wisdom from Maya Angelou

Dr. Virginia Banks, an infectious diseases specialist with Northeast Ohio Infectious Diseases Associates, is coming back strong. You can read more about Dr. Banks at NEOIDA’s website.

What are some of the ways the COVID-19 outbreak has changed your work life?

As infectious disease physicians, we’re all seeing more patients overall. In the early days of the pandemic everyone worked more days and longer hours.

How about your personal life?

I think I have become somewhat of a pariah. I think I started to feel separated from my friends when it was apparent my friends had a little trepidation about being around me. This is a new disease and understandably people are scared.  It’s sort of like the early days of HIV/AIDS when people were afraid to be in the same room with the disease.

I would like to say that I have exercised more but that’s not true.   I just look forward to a nice glass of wine, reading a good book or catching up on a Netflix series. I also have a significant other who has introduced me to being out on Atwood Lake and fishing.

What steps have you taken to hang tough?

My auntie, famous author, poet and national treasure, the late Maya Angelou, used to say, “If you see something you don’t like, work to change it.  If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” This is what I have done. I gather up strength and energy from my early days as an intern and resident in the 70s. We did not have the luxury of few nights on call. We were on call anywhere from every other night, every third night to every fourth night. I know how to work hard.

What advice are you sharing with the people you love?

Stay at home, stay safe.  The quarantining that you are doing is flattening the curve.  This is the only way now to stop or minimize the spread of this virus.

What I reflect on now is that in the 1990s I saw young people my age dying from a disease, HIV/AIDS. I find myself now in 2020 watching people my age dying of Coronavirus.