“With great power comes great responsibility” — but, what does that mean for me?
COVID-19. A term that we have grown to hate, hear about every day, and likely, even have nightmares about. I don’t want to be stuck living this pandemic life just like anyone else. However, I have adapted to it and have followed the guidelines as best as possible including in my work. From March to August 2020, I completely worked from home (which is tough as a neuroscience research trainee!). But, in August we got the go-ahead to run participants for our studies! Of course, with many — much needed — COVID-19 precautions.
The National Institutes of Health’s Building 10, is normally a bustling and busy place with scientists, clinicians, janitors, construction workers, cafeteria employees, coffee shop sales personnel, gift shop employees, and post-bacs (like me!) running up and down the maze-like research hospital. When I started physically going in again to schedule participants and help run them through our study, I noticed the impact of the pandemic. The building was always nearly empty! Yet, the few people that were there were a joy to see since working from home full-time for over five months had taken away the ability to see more than the four people I live with (I love them though). Fast forward to January, the time I was fortunate to get the Moderna vaccine, I ran into a Mexican janitor that I had had brief conversations, in my native Spanish language, with in Building 10 on different occasions. It was great to see her and spark up a small conversation!
I casually mentioned how I was going to get vaccinated soon, that day I believe, and she cautiously and nervously pointed out how scared she was about it and that in her community there was hesitancy about it. I calmly said that I wasn’t worried and explained the — VERY — basic understanding I had about the workings of the vaccine and especially highlighted that the main component was a protein that the virus uses, and that the vaccine (in no way) had a virus nor did it have the ability to cause COVID-19. She seemed a bit more relieved and we had our despedida (goodbye).
Fast forward again (yes there are some time gaps in this story, but I am sure you can relate) to March 2021. I ran into the janitor again in Building 10! We were happy to see each other, and she pointedly asked about my vaccination, my experience with it, and the symptoms I felt. Then she went on to mention that she built the confidence to get it herself, but not without having been shaken up with fear by relatives of the “danger” that the vaccine could cause. It seems that her family were also misinformed and genuinely afraid.
However, she said that she was going to get vaccinated no matter what and even told her sister not to scare her anymore! So, the janitor was vaccinated and apparently had the common symptoms that most have been experiencing. But, what touched my heart was that she gained the confidence in part of what I had told her months before about the fear I didn’t have about the vaccine and especially how it was made it with a protein and not the virus itself. Wow!
I was humbled.
She also mentioned that her sister gained the confidence to be vaccinated after watching her get vaccinated.
As I walked away, I realized the power that I had and will continue to have as I go down the path to becoming a physician. For some reason, very randomly, I thought about Uncle Ben’s quote in Stan Lee’s Spiderman I movie,
“With great power comes great responsibility”.
I thought about the “power” of knowledge I had from being a college-educated Latino/Hispanic research assistant. This power along with the trust she had for me since I treated her respectfully, but also happened to be from the same ethnic background as her (Mexican), seemed to have made a difference. I realized that as I continue my path to becoming a physician, opportunities like this will increase. I now know that I have a responsibility to the people — like me — that are missing physicians and scientists in their communities that would play a role of communicating scientific fact while simultaneously being fully trusted by that community.
