Neal Birnbaum, MD: Shelter-in-Place Brought My Family Together

In this video, Neal Birnbaum, MD, from Pacific Rheumatology Associates, talks about how the shelter-in-place order brought his family closer together, even in times of crisis.

Neal S. Birnbaum, MD, FACP, MACR, is director of the Division of Rheumatology at California Pacific Medical Center, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and managing partner of Pacific Rheumatology Associates in San Francisco, California.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, I'm Dr Neil Birnbaum. I've been practicing rheumatology in San Francisco for 43 years. I'm currently the managing partner of Pacific Rheumatology Associates, a for rheumatology practice in Pacific Heights in San Francisco.

This has been a rather unique time for all of us. And I've been asked to comment about how COVID-19 has affected my life and the life of our practice and our patients. I'm certainly happy to try to provide some input.

We made a decision very early on to include our 2 children and 2 small grandchildren within our nuclear family. We live 2 minutes from them. They are part of our lives on a daily basis. We continue to have that relationship, largely because we've been able to help provide some childcare help.

My daughter and her husband are still working full time from home. They have a nearly 4-year-old and a nearly 1-year-old who require a lot of time and effort. Of course, they have no childcare at the moment, so we have stepped in, particularly my wife, to do some of that; our older daughter, who works in retail and is laid off, has also been helping.

We made that decision at the beginning to have them be part of our lives. I hope it works out OK. And so far in San Francisco, the efforts of mitigation and shelter-in-place seem to be successful. The rate of COVID-19 infections in San Francisco has been much less than other parts of the country. While shelter-in-place has been very traumatic and difficult for everyone, we're hopeful that it has been successful.

And I think the last thing I can say how it affected me is I grew back the beard that I cut off 20 years ago because I've been home nearly all the time.

With that, I want to thank you for listening in. I would be very interested in knowing how all of you are coping with this unique coronavirus pandemic. Be well, stay safe. Thank you