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Doctor, people have put their lives on hold
and with that, so many regular annual appointments,
check-ups, physicals, screenings,
people have put aside
and almost been afraid to go to the doctor.
If you've got something going on,
and you are just really kind of scared,
what advice would you have?
Well, the most important advice that I give to all people
is that you need to have a good primary care doctor
or a clinician that you trust.
Someone that will be available to you
that you can pick up the phone and ask questions to
that you can go see,
who has a schedule that is flexible enough
that doesn't make you wait weeks to get in to see them.
And, during the pandemic, we added to that
by allowing telemedicine visits
to become a more frequent thing.
And so not only could you go and make an appointment,
you could actually get on the phone and speak to someone
face-to-face via telemedicine link.
And in northern New Jersey, it's really at the point now
where it's safe to go get routine care.
So for people who are saying you know what,
I think I'll just put it off until next year's annual,
I'll just put it off.
What would you say?
So I think that's a major mistake.
The guidelines that are put out
by the professional organizations and the experts
in terms of how often you should have a colonoscopy
and a mammogram and a pap smear,
those guidelines are there for a reason.
There is so much information for people to take in
and to try to understand and process,
and then figure out what is best for them.
So if you were writing a prescription for people
who are watching and listening to you,
what would the prescription be?
That's a good question.
I would say that they should try to resume
their normal life knowing that things are not normal.
So we need to start doing the things that we need to do
to stay healthy.
We need to go outside and exercise.
We need to communicate
and reconnect with our family and friends
in a socially distant, safe way.
But getting back to going to visit your parents
if you haven't done that because you were concerned
that you were putting them at risk.
I think now is a safe time to do that.
And so we need to resume some level of normalcy
but at the same time, keep wearing our masks,
keep staying socially distant,
keep staying six feet away from each other
whenever possible,
and also watching and listening to what's going on
in the community.
Some people think that they're doing the right thing
by staying home.
I'm not sick, I'm healthy,
I'll get my check-up in six months,
what's the danger?
There's the person who was having some back pain
or some belly pain or some chest pain
and they're like well it's not that severe,
I'll just let it be.
And if people are putting those things off
because they're worried about COVID, I understand that,
but I'm worried that we're going to delay making diagnoses
that we really need to make as soon as possible
so that we can get the patient the right treatment.
Because those screening appointments
are incredibly important at keeping you healthy.
What about our regular, traditional flu shot?
Would you still recommend people get
a regular, traditional flu shot?
More important than ever.
Literally getting a flu shot not only can save your life,
but it can save the lives of people around you.
And in the midst of this pandemic,
when the flu season comes upon us,
we are gonna have a really tough time
if people don't get their flu shots.
Tough, because we're going to see a lot of sick people
and tough because we may have a difficult time
differentiating flu from COVID-19.
And so the more people who get flu shots, the better.
They are very, very safe.
There's no such thing as anything in life
that's a thousand percent safe,
but people should take their flu shots.
If you're willing to get in your car and drive down the road
and take the risk of getting in your car,
a flu shot is as safe, if not safer than that.
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