Dr. Taison Bell, MD, an acclaimed African-American doctor, educator, and emergency medicine director in Charlottesville, Virginia, shares his personal story of how medicine – back home in Virginia – became the center of his life. “Success was not assumed in my neighborhood.” As a child with asthma, he connected with his physician, as he did also with his Black dentist and several teachers. Such “affirmative experiences” made the dream “seem like it was achievable.” In retrospect, “so many things had to align at the right place and right time.” The pandemic now puts a premium on doctors becoming communicators. “Things will not be the same from this moment forward.” “People arrive in my ICU because they are unvaccinated… People are generally willing to trust their local provider in their community regardless of what side of the aisle they are on.” But “everyone has an opinion, some spread by misinformation.”A recent conspiracy alleges doctors put patients on ventilators to intentionally make them sicker. “That has become one of the toughest parts of care.” You have to have a “therapeutic alliance” and trust with the patient and family. When those do not exist, it almost always does not end well. Boosters a good thing? Yes, though “everyone has good points.” Talking openly about how he makes decisions with his family during the pandemic makes him “relatable.” It opens a window into how he is processing things. 

Dr. Taison Bell, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of Infectious Diseases and International Health and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia. He is also the Director of the medical intensive care unit (ICU) and director of the UVA Summer Medical Leadership Program.