An internal memo sent to doctors by the chief medical officer at Our Lady of Lourdes has been shared over and over on Acadiana Facebook pages.
It is aimed at physicians, and asks for their help.
"We all went into medicine out of a sense of the common good, to heal the sick and to ease suffering. Currently our community is sick, the disease is ignorance and misinformation and you my colleagues, are the cure. The patient requires your attention. Act," he wrote.
Today, the hospital posted the memo to confirm it was, indeed, written by Dr. Henry Kaufman.
"While not intended as a message to the public, it is an accurate and current depiction of what our team is facing and the strain being put on our healthcare system in Lafayette. We implore the community to adhere to recommended precautions to help us stop the spread of COVID-19," the post states.
In his memo, Kaufman shares dire facts about the virus' impact on Acadiana's ability to deliver medical care, and implores citizens not to abandon science.
"I am confronted daily by individuals in our community who believe that the pandemic is a hoax, that it is politically motivated, that things are not as bad as the media portrays. If anyone doubts it, I invite them to accompany me personally on a tour of our ICU and the COVID units. There you can see for yourself patients in their second, third and fourth decade of life with minimal to no comorbid conditions struggle to breathe in the ICU alongside those we would expect to be most severely impacted by the disease. This disease is NOT affecting just those with significant medical comorbidities," he wrote.
Other countries have followed the science, and they're much better off, he wrote.
"The media noise surrounding the pandemic has been accompanied by abandonment of the scientific principles and precepts upon which your practice, modern medicine and public health have been founded. Where other places have allowed science and reason to guide their actions, the curve has been flattened and the disease has been suppressed to the point where routine personal and commercial activities have resumed. Here in our community, there has been much resistance to common sense measures and we are reaping the rewards of our obstinance," he wrote.
Here's the post:
