What exactly is Personal Responsibility and why is it emphasized so much in modern political discourse?

Let’s move away from the vitriol of the argument of Personal Responsibility and move back towards the founding principles of individualism, self-determination, and upward mobility.

During the past few weeks I have been struggling with anger, resentment, and frustration with my fellow Americans. It feels like around every corner there are people being spiteful, hateful, and selfish. But this week I started to open my eyes and see something else.

“At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, there was a lot of interest around a specific box design that proved effective at containing droplets emitted by patients during intubation,” said Rajnish Gupta, associate professor of anesthesiology at VUMC. “This design gained rapid interest around the world as a means to improve safety. But since, we’ve also learned that these boxes do not offer sufficient protection against aerosols.”

The new solution, created by Gupta and the team at VISE, led by Duke Herrell, professor of urologic surgery and professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, will give clinicians a way to quickly and markedly improve the boxes they already have on hand.

I had the pleasure to participate as a speaker for the inaugural ASRA Webinar on recommendations for restarting clinical practice in a post-COVID era. You do have to register to watch the video but it is available at the link above through ASRA’s webpage.

In our current world of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, or whatever other name you would like to use, we are all learning new behaviors and social interaction mechanisms. Nothing is more “in your face” (pun intended) than the mask. Nothing is also more misunderstood and controversial.