estimate is close given my own experience amongst the ~80
employees in our practice.
The hospitalization rate of 6% is high, but lower than our
initial estimate from 2 years ago. Using very crude numbers
from the fi rst Summary published March 27, 2020, there were
46 hospitalizations amongst 367 cases, or 12.5%. Of course,
diff erent variants had varying degrees of illness.
Deaths: While 1.1% of cases is lower that what was being
propagated 2 years ago (I remember seeing 4% on random
emails… disinformation?), that is signifi cant. Granted there
are age diff erences, but who would take a 1% risk of death?
To put this in perspective, the death rate for those that attempt
to climb Mount Everest is about 1.14% (Himalaya By
Numbers 1950-2019, p147 there are many varying statistics
regarding death rates for Mount Everest). Deaths of hospitalized
patients: 17% of hospitalizations!!! Please, a moment of
silence… that is an extraordinary statistic.
That last statistic made me realize that my pandemic
experience as a fertility doctor is entirely diff erent from that
of those who specialize in infectious disease, emergency
medicine, internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and palliative
care, to name a few.
I had an entirely diff erent experience. I doubt that any of
those specialties were fi elding questions about the eff ect
of the COVID-19 vaccine on fertility. Early on, there were
questions regarding similarity between the SARS-CoV-2 spike
protein and syncytin-1, a protein needed to support implantation,
and of course all those questions were answered, and
concerns debunked. There is no evidence that COVID-19
vaccines cause infertility. However, there were reports that
the vaccine may result in a 1-day delay of menstruation
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4 | DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • March 2022
in women and could temporarily lower sperm count for 3
months in men. By comparison, these are trivial matters that
had no long-term eff ect on fertility, and of course your menstrual
cycle length and semen analysis don’t matter if you are
dead (sorry to be so blunt). None of my patients died during
the pandemic. While of course I did hear stories of young &
healthy people who died, these were not patients. No, my
biggest issue as a physician was keeping up with the guidelines,
mediating diff erent partner views on what policy should
be, and trying to fully staff a clinic with frequent staffi ng
shortages due to COVID-19 quarantine or isolation.
At the time of this writing (February 18, 2022), our country is
slowly removing mask mandates, and Dallas County Health
Guidance is probably going to move from a risk level of Red
to Orange. While new cases diagnosed are down, hospital
loads are still excessive, with ~10% of patients hospitalized
due to COVID-19.
I will conclude with gratitude for all physicians and those
involved in our health care systems, for the extraordinary
service to our community that you have provided. I would
like to express gratitude on behalf of all of us who don’t treat
COVID-19 patients, to those who have been directly involved
with evaluating, diagnosing, and treating patients with COVID
19, and their families with whom you have practiced the
art of medicine.
Earlier this month, I learned that neither the DCMS nor
Dallas County keeps any records of physicians who have lost
their lives to COVID-19. Unfortunately, there isn’t any offi
cial record of that statistic. If you know of a Dallas County
physician who has died due to COVID-19, please contact the
DCMS and let us know. DMJ
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