The COVID-19 pandemic has not only killed 300,000+ Americans, destroyed innumerable businesses and livelihoods, and triggered mental illness in countless individuals; it has also eroded the trust that exists between the American public and the healthcare policy makers, public health officials, and administrators that serve as agents of healthcare delivery.
As a result of contradictory, incompetent, senseless, and insensitive rulemaking, and the incoherent guidance from top health policymakers, confidence in the healthcare system has never been quite as low as it is today. This distrust gained a footing in the American consciousness as a direct result of what happened in the first days of the pandemic, which has been shrouded in a cloud of mystery and the truth of which has been completely unknown. Until now.
In his new book COVIDSLAYERS, Dr. Rajesh Mohan, MD, MBA, FACC, FSCAI, an interventional cardiologist and the Chief Medical Officer at Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, pulls back the curtain on the healthcare system and its decision-making in the early days of COVID-19. In a candid, yet exceedingly diplomatic work, Dr. Mohan describes his own experience in treating coronavirus patients, while giving readers a stunningly clear perspective on the facts of the pandemic, covering the good, the bad, and the ugly.
As Dr. Mohan told TLS, “COVIDSLAYERS is about the unvarnished truth of the coronavirus pandemic – the incidents that occurred on the front lines, as well as what was happening behind closed doors. This pandemic has done immeasurable harm, but there is also so much to learn from it. If we don’t learn from this, we will have learned nothing at all. We must not go back to business as usual.”
Dr. Mohan describes how the public proclamations of health policymakers – including New Jersey’s – directly contradicted modern medical advice and may have led to countless preventable deaths. He lays out how public messaging was backwards from the very early days of the outbreak in the United States, leading the public to act in ways that only hurt them further. And he eloquently, piece by piece, describes the pernicious nature of healthcare networks in the United States, and how the decisions made by those at the top of the healthcare industry food chain – including the decision to deny patients visitors – caused tremendous harm in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
COVIDSLAYERS also devotes a chapter to addressing both the bigotry and humanity that we all observed over the course of the pandemic. Dr Mohan details the hypocrisy of those who painted the Orthodox Jewish community with a broad brush, describing all Orthodox Jews as rule-breakers and laying blame for the outbreak at their feet. He points out the double-standard shown by leaders who allowed massive protests, public political rallies and recreational events to go on while clamping down on religious activities. But he writes too of the humanity, the inherent goodwill shown by so many who went above and beyond what they were expected to do to help others, including community-wide drives to donate convalescent plasma so that seriously ill patients might have a chance at surviving.
(The book can be purchased on Amazon.)
The views expressed by Dr. Mohan in the book and here are solely his and do not represent those of any individual, group, entity or organization that he is currently or was previously associated with.
Wow I read this guy’s book unbelievable this guy really knows his stuff nothing against rich roberts but this guy is a real practicing dr
In reading what’s here, I think he gets it.
I hope the book touches on AND ADMITS that the 300k number of deaths in the USA is false as even CDC admitted it’s only 6% of that number!
I hope the book clearly spells out that we are being fed a load of malarchy when it comes to positive cases. We are constantly being fed the number of positive divided by the number of tests, which gives a higher number. We SHOULD be getting the number of positive divided by population, which would give a lower number.
Here in NJ, no matter what you are told, the number of positive in the past week is 0.357% (31710 positive divided by 8.882 million, the population of NJ), which means over 99.6% are just fine! WHY DON’T WE GET THIS NUMBER?
In NY State it is 0.396% positive, again 99.6% are just fine.
In NYC it is 0.213% positive, meaning almost 98% of the population is just fine!
These numbers are NOT made up. These are real numbers as the states/cities report then. Granted I’m using a real number of population vs the much smaller number of tests given.
What is with Cuomo, deBlasio, Murphy etc??? THEY ARE NUTS!
I know Dr. Mohan well. He is a brilliant doctor, gifted administrator, and more uncommon, a genuine good man. He has been there for our community and all the patients in ways too numerous to list.
His clear-eyed look at what we went through and how we as doctors and hospitals responded is must reading. He writes not what happened a world away, but what happened on River Avenue.
His leadership and the program he built is responsible for many patients well-treated and lives saved.