ST PAUL, Minn. — When M Health Fairview Bethesda Hospital transformed into a COVID-19 facility back in March, Dr. Ben Trappey volunteered to work there.
"It kind of felt weird to have this like existential crisis and not be on the front lines," he said.
Because Trappey's wife was pregnant at the time, he lived in a hotel while working at Bethesda to minimize any risk to her.
He says writing is his "way of decompressing" and leads a writing group for residents and faculty at the University of Minnesota.
"That's just kind of naturally how I process," he said.
Which is why he wrote this piece, now published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The piece, titled "Running on Fumes", shares Trappey's view as societal attitudes toward the pandemic changed when spring turned to summer.
"Back then, it seemed like we were facing the threat of COVID-19 together. The news was full of images of people across the country coming together to celebrate frontline workers," Trappey wrote. "While health care workers were putting their lives at risk, the rest of the community were also making sacrifices. People were drastically changing their lives to flatten the curve and slow down the alarming spread of the virus."
Trappey told KARE 11 that while he still felt support within Bethesda, it was hard to ignore the changes happening outside hospital walls.
"Now, five months later, the feelings of the spring are a distant memory. Hope gave way to frustration as the heartwarming images of mutual sacrifice were replaced by images of protests about the sanctity of dining out and getting haircuts," he wrote in the JAMA piece. "Social media is a window into the world outside of my bubble of the hotel and the hospital. There, summer is in full swing and the pandemic that I grapple with daily is nothing but a distant memory."
Trappey said in an interview with KARE 11 that while he was initially frustrated by what he was seeing, now he's just weary.
"The only hope I really have is for a vaccine at this point, because I don't think there's the social and political will to do another lockdown for long enough to really suppress the virus to a point where you can contact trace your way out of it," he said in the KARE 11 interview.
After quarantining at a hotel, Trappey returned home on parental leave. He and his wife welcomed their newborn son about a week ago.
You can read Trappey's full essay, published in JAMA, here.