How to Coexist with Illness | Matters "Illness Lesson" Limited Time Special!

Yesterday, Matters launched the "Support the Author" function, readers can pay legal currency or LikeCoin for the works they admire, and express your support for the author.

Today Matters also wants to recommend his work to everyone!

The Matters team has created a series of audio lessons over the past year. One of them is "Disease Course". The lecturer is the director of the Department of Medical Ethics and Humanities of the University of Hong Kong and Dr. Wu Yirui , a doctor of medical history at the University of Oxford @易瑞. It was also the first time that he moved the course content online to share with more readers .

In this course, the teacher will tell from the perspectives of history, biology, sociology, anthropology, etc., how we should live with diseases in today's increasingly advanced medical technology——

 Medicine is not a panacea, and not all diseases can be cured. Medicine alone is not enough to make us healthy. We must pay attention to the situation of people and the relationship between people and society in order to find the way to health.

When this course was sold on the "Looking Ideal" app, it set a record of selling 1,000+ copies in 2 days, and received a lot of praise. Some of the excerpts are as follows:

When this program first came out, it was during the high incidence of the epidemic, and I gained so much, I was moved to tears a few times (or because of anger, empathy, or the warmth brought by a more out-of-the-ordinary vision), it is really meaningful Unexpected gains, and at the same time more agree with the attitude of "knowledge is a responsibility" agreed by the ancient Greeks, thank you teacher. I will recommend it to more people.

Thank you author. Illness is not just a matter of life and death, it is also a matter of pain, dignity, sense of control, autonomy, etc. It is a matter of meaning. What people fear is not the action of the heart stopping, but what it means. Educating about life and death in advance, and cherishing the existence of human beings as a whole, may be able to regain some sense of happiness and meaning, instead of just consuming vitality in the jungle and materialism.

"The patient's pain cannot be separated from her life experience. She does not exist as a carrier of a lot of symptoms, she is a complete person" was poked by this sentence, and the eyes instantly became moist.

I am a doctor and I am currently supporting in Wuhan. I am so nervous that I cannot relax during my rest. I have learned different views and things from traditional medicine from your courses, and I have benefited a lot. The most important thing is that I fell asleep after listening to it. Maybe it is a good way to replace the nervousness with another kind of thinking, the soul Relaxation is important, which may be similar to the purpose of your course.

I like the teacher's class very much. Because I have polycystic ovaries, I often go to the hospital to see a doctor for examinations, so I resonate many times when listening to the teacher's courses. What the teacher said is also the problem I usually encounter when I go to the hospital. This course gave me a new understanding. In the face of diseases, I should have more confidence in myself. I have the obligation and responsibility to understand the pain of my body and understand the purpose of my medical treatment, so that I can better choose the treatment method and your own way of life.

As mentioned in many comments, this course will work with you to understand diseases from a broader perspective. It is the responsibility of each of us to understand the disease and understand the medicine, society, politics and people behind the disease. Only by establishing such a cognition and managing the relationship between ourselves and the disease can we gain healthy freedom.

These 10 humanities and medicine courses, I believe you will not be disappointed.

【Course Catalog】

【Limited Time Special! 】

For Matters readers, we have a limited-time special offer of 25 Hong Kong dollars (limited to 2 weeks), that is, each lesson is only about 2.5 Hong Kong dollars, 2 yuan, and 0.3 US dollars.

Limited time special for 2 weeks only! After 2 weeks, the course will return to the original price of 50 Hong Kong dollars.

[How to get this course? 】

Just three steps:

1. Payment: First click the "Pay Author" button at the bottom of this article and pay 25 Hong Kong dollars or 900 likecoin .
2. Leave your contact information: After the payment is successful, please write to this email address (customer@matters.news) , leaving your Matters account name and ID used for payment (please check it is correct! Very important!), and your email address.
3. After Matty checks the user name, he will send the audio and text sharing link of the course to your email within 12 hours, and you only need to click on the link to get the course.

** Because this course is a paid content, readers who received the audio please respect the efforts of the speakers and editors, and do not copy the audio to others.

Note: Regarding course sales, if there is any follow-up matter, it will be noted in the comment area.

Finally, I would like to share with all readers for free, the special program that Mr. Wu prepared for this course during the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia: When the Plague Spreads

Hello, my name is Harry. This lesson will tell you about the plague. From the outbreak of the new coronavirus in December until today, the epidemic has not slowed down, and the whole world has started to panic about masks. You can see many people queuing up overnight outside many drugstores. In the past few days, some people have posted a message saying that Hong Kong’s toilet paper and other livelihood supplies are about to be in short supply, causing many people to frantically buy them. This was before the outbreak of the epidemic. Or the normal thing that happens in all of them, which is extreme panic.

People will face with a very extreme sense of disgust for things they don't understand. On a collective level, this kind of panic can appear terrifying, as if a group of people suddenly became very irrational.

What we are going to talk about in this section is, what will happen to people in the face of an instant outbreak of an infectious disease?

First of all, why is there a large-scale outbreak? In fact, this has happened many times in human history. Why? The first reason is that the scope of human travel has become larger. The second reason is that people's way of life has changed, mainly due to large-scale urbanization . After urbanization, people's living conditions become crowded, and people become closer to each other.

These three conditions are likely to cause large-scale epidemics. For example, the Black Death in the 14th century, historians now generally believe that the Black Death was introduced to Europe from Yunnan, China, and spread through the very familiar Silk Road. It is very convenient for people to do business on this road, and it is an economic community, but this economic community is actually a disease community , and it becomes a common market for bacteria. In China, these Black Death bacteria did not cause a large-scale epidemic. However, Europe was undergoing urbanization at that time. After urbanization, the living conditions became denser and became a breeding ground for bacteria. Moreover, the degree of urbanization is not synchronized as a whole. Some urban areas will be better developed, more sophisticated and advanced, while others will be unmanageable slums, which will become hot spots for disease outbreaks.

After the outbreak, how will people deal with it? Now we will hear a word called global health, global health is a very new term, it has a long history.

In the process of human colonization and migration, humans (mainly Europeans) found themselves victims. They found themselves sick and dying several times more during the voyage than in their homeland. After sailing to the new world, when they come into contact with local people or species they are not familiar with, these diseases will occur. But when these Europeans returned to their countries, or directly on the ship, epidemics broke out, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, measles, influenza or smallpox, so when Britain became the maritime hegemony in the 18th century At the same time, they found that their bodies were very fragile. In response to this, they have made some countermeasures. For example, they know that they need to drink clean water, control their diet, and start to design their daily routines. Then when they immigrate to the colony, they will choose a suitable place to live in The place. For example, if you are in Hong Kong, the mountainous areas above the middle of the mountain are the places where white people live.

Let us take the plague in Hong Kong as an example. This epidemic is not very common to Hong Kong people. Everyone knows that the plague broke out in Hong Kong in 1894, causing the third large-scale global epidemic. In fact, when the British came ashore from Sheung Wan, Hong Kong in 1842, they discovered a special disease. They called it "hongkong fever", Hong Kong fever. At that time, bacteriology was underdeveloped, so people might only understand that the water and soil were not acclimatized, and they could do nothing but wait until the epidemic passed.

By the time of the plague in Hong Kong in 1894, bacteriology in various parts of Europe had been relatively mature. There are different opinions about the origin of the disease, but it is still generally believed that it spread from Yunnan to Guangzhou, and then to Hong Kong. Why did it break out in Hong Kong? The place where the Hong Kong outbreak broke out is exactly where the Chinese people live densely. This Chinese residence is a place planned by the British Hong Kong government, which is now part of the Taiping Mountains. The population inside it is very dense, there are 3-4 families in a very long and narrow house, and then humans and animals live together, people live on top, animals live below, so this place becomes a breeding ground for bacteria.

Well, this period of history has brought several key changes to Hong Kong. The first is that the Chinese in Hong Kong finally have their own parks. Why? Because the Hong Kong British government demolished all the houses where the Chinese lived in the Taiping Mountains. This place is now the ancient palace garden. If you travel to Hong Kong, you will still see this place. Now there is no way to build any residential areas in this place.

The second is to promote different bacteriologists to come to Hong Kong for scientific research competition, including Shibasaburo Kitasato from Germany and Japan, and Alexandre Yersin from France and Vietnam. In the end, Yersin came from a patient Germs were isolated from the lymph glands in the corpse.

The third is that Western medicine has become dominant. Before that, there was a Tung Wah Hospital in Hong Kong, which used traditional Chinese medicine in the early days and was welcomed by the Chinese. When the plague occurred, Chinese medicine and Western medicine had similar effects, but the history of the plague outbreak made the Hong Kong British government want to reform Chinese medicine, and then turned Tung Wah Hospital in Hong Kong into a hospital of Western medicine.

At that time, there were two ways to deal with the plague in Hong Kong, which have been used to this day, that is, isolation and quarantine . Although this is a history of more than 100 years ago, it is still very relevant to the present.

Let’s talk about isolation first. More than 100 years ago, the health police of the British Hong Kong government would come to the door to remove the corpse, or forcefully take the fever patient to some isolated hospitals, or even a ship at sea for isolation. The ship is so spectacular that it is called Sea House in the outer harbor of the Western Ring. At that time, the Chinese didn’t trust the British Hong Kong government very much. They thought that people who were brought on board would be captured by the British for human experiments, or their eyes would be gouged out and used as lenses for cameras, etc. This kind of coercion is now, in fact, anyone will be very resistant.

Let's talk about quarantine. The practice of quarantine was proposed by the French around 1834, and they proposed to hold a conference on international quarantine standards. What is the purpose of this meeting? In fact, it is not for hygiene, but for the operation of the entire international business.

In 1834, France proposed to hold a conference on international quarantine standards, but it was not actually held until 1851, and a total of 10 meetings were held in the 19th century. Countries around the world want to prevent the spread of disease by sea through quarantine. But at that time the UK raised objections. Britain was the largest maritime trading nation at that time, and its target was India. At that time, there was another reason for holding these international conferences, which was that they were afraid that diseases from the East would affect their normal business activities. For example, in Islam, they would go on a pilgrimage to Mecca every year, and there were actually several cases of cholera on the way. Record.

So in the early 20th century, these conferences often discussed how to prevent these oriental diseases from spreading to Europe.

For example, the meetings after 1894 have been focusing on discussing the plague in East Asia. The issues discussed have something to do with the interests of the empire. But when did the normalization of these meetings, until the institutionalization later, be established? It was the World Health Organization after World War II. In this organization, each modern country serves as a member, so each member has an equal voice. Of course, there are also some issues of power. For example, the members of the Security Council are superior to other countries. That's another matter.

After all, when encountering a large-scale epidemic, how do people deal with themselves?

Just now we said that isolation will bring panic, and quarantine will bring discrimination. This is actually human nature. Some students told me that he saw some big professors and doctors in the hospital who are usually amiable, but when this large-scale outbreak occurs, their attitudes change. They become very harsh and unreasonable. In fact, it is justifiable, because to some extent, fighting against the epidemic is like wartime. What we usually talk about, the autonomy of patients and the equivalence between doctors and patients in contemporary medical care, has now added a commanding height. considerations, that is, the public interest.

At this time, some principles we usually talk about in medical ethics will change, that is, obligations will outweigh rights.

There are two main points. The first one is that people start to abide by the principle of large numbers . All practices prioritize the protection of the interests of the majority and will sacrifice individual rights and interests. Number 2, your autonomy will be taken away . Your freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, and sometimes even your right to privacy will be violated at this time.

The specific method is that when you have symptoms, you must obediently obey orders and accept the requirements of isolation and quarantine. If you have a travel history, you cannot lie or spread false information at this time.

If you are a healthy person, you must be able to manage your own health at this time, and you must also know how to prevent diseases. For example, you must wear a mask to prevent droplets, and you must know how to wash your hands properly; you It is necessary to understand how to use medical resources instead of occupying them. If there is a vaccine, you must understand that the vaccine is important, and not resist it irrationally. In sociological terms, this is called citizenship .

Of course, while it is important that obligations outweigh rights, the corresponding is a sensible government. This government must sacrifice the least amount of personal rights and interests, and then effectively achieve the purpose of serving the public. This is called good governance . What does good governance consist of?

• The first point is to use the interests of the people as the basis for decision-making, and there must be a clear accountability mechanism.
• The second point is that information and decision-making should be as transparent as possible. Media and freedom of speech are the biggest foundation to support this.
• The third point is that professional and technical personnel, including medical personnel, must be respected, and there must be a good consultation mechanism on this point.

These voluntary civic qualities, as well as a good government that is considerate of people's sentiments, must be cultivated over a long period of time. Let's go back to history. When the plague broke out in Hong Kong, we will see a government that has no way to be considerate of the people's feelings, and has no way to do a good job of epidemic control. At that time, the British Hong Kong government immediately ordered the closure of Hong Kong. As a result, about 2/3 of the people fled back to Guangzhou at that time.

But after thirty or forty years it was different. Let's take smallpox as an example. Tin Hau is a disease that people in South China have been struggling with for more than 100 years. A British bacteriologist in Hong Kong said in the 20th century that if the people of Hong Kong could not learn how to vaccinate, that day would be absolutely uncontrollable. Therefore, in the first half of the 20th century, through the government's advocacy, the cooperation of neighborhood organizations, and even the use of charities, Hong Kong people were gradually familiarized with these public health operations, and Hong Kong people gradually learned the so-called citizenship.

However, after 30 years, smallpox still cannot be controlled. Especially during the Second World War, the population displacement became more serious. Many refugees fled to Hong Kong, causing another smallpox epidemic. How will it be solved in the end? It is to close the customs again, blocking the traffic between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. But at this time, closing the customs is much more effective than during the plague incident, because people know that it is effective.

Looking back at this outbreak, the World Health Organization finally declared the outbreak a global health emergency. But is declaring this state useful? In fact, this state of emergency does not respond to the emergencies happening within China. China has finally admitted that it was caught off guard by its response. Although hospitals are being built on a large scale, it is not enough to have empty hospitals, because you must have equipment and well-trained medical staff, and these medical staff must also have basic livelihood supplies so that they can have food and clothing. A state of war.

Moreover, the characteristics of this coronavirus are very special. Even though its genetic sequence is more than 80% similar to that of SARS in 2003, its mode of transmission and its symptoms have not been fully grasped by many experts so far. Then every place where it broke out, from Wuhan to other provinces and cities, from other provinces and cities to other countries in Southeast Asia, and even to Europe and the United States, the political and economic conditions, social and cultural conditions of each place are completely different. What we have seen is that the severity of the discriminatory state of the population brought about by the epidemic may exceed the threat of the virus itself.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, we start off with panic, and then we see states of collective trauma that go beyond loss of life.

We need to know that whether we are ordinary people or professionals, we must realize that the tools of science are actually limited at this time. The progress of science is indeed in the midst of such different crises, constantly making corrections. Only by understanding this can we face the unknown without fear.

The following courses will tell you that no matter how advanced medical treatment is, we cannot fully rely on these tools. We must see their faces clearly, recognize their essence, and then give up this once-and-for-all mentality to learn to be peaceful with diseases coexistence.

Click to support the author below, pay 25 Hong Kong dollars or 900LikeCoin (limited time special offer!), you can get this wonderful and moving human disease course👇.