Doctor's post on Coronavirus sparking mass panic gets netizens' support

Picture/Dr. Abdu Sharkawy-Facebook

A doctor expressing his concerns on the mass panic caused because of the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak has garnered support from netizens across the globe. Dr Abdu Sharkawy posted on his Facebook account a heartfelt post about how he is not afraid of the pandemic but the outcomes of a mass panic that has gripped the world.

In the post, Dr Sharkawy introduces himself as an infectious disease specialist and says that he has been tending to sick patients everyday for over 20 years and worked in inner city hospitals and the poorest slums of Africa tackling contagious diseases. Having little to feeling vulnerable about when it comes to infections, he says that it is not COVID-19 that he is scared of but "the implications of a novel infectious agent that has spread the world over and continues to find new footholds in different soil."

He makes it clear that he is concerned about the welfare of the people but he is scared about "the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything that could fill a bomb shelter adequately in a post-apocalyptic world." Dr Sharkawy also expressed his concerned over the N95 masks meant for patients are being stolen from hospitals and are being worn to malls, airports and coffee lounges, instilling more fear in people.

"I am scared that our hospitals will be overwhelmed with anyone who thinks they " probably don't have it but may as well get checked out no matter what because you just never know..." and those with heart failure, emphysema, pneumonia and strokes will pay the price for overfilled ER waiting rooms with only so many doctors and nurses to assess," he says in the post.

Read the post here.

The post shared on March 6 received more than 684,000 likes and was shared by other users over 1.7 million times. Many people commented on the post thanking the doctor for making them aware of the facts amid such a chaotic time.

One user said, "Having a doctor like yourself put things in perspective and provide facts is super important in today's crazy climate. Keep em' coming." Another user said, "Thank you for putting some factual rational light on this! Well expressed!

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