Hanley stresses remaining calm and resilient working through the pandemic
Doctor Daniel Hanley has been dealing with COVID19 for almost the entire year since he’s opened his Ancuram Clinic in Bokeelia. Even with this bird’s-eye view of the pandemic, overall, he’s remained calm, saying that as a country we are faring pretty well.
“The importance of vaccination now is to protect those who have not had COVID,” said Hanley, who is one of the members of the Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force.
He’s optimistic that there is ample access to healthcare in the U.S. preventing un-necessary deaths from COVID-19. The concern, in his opinion, lies more in the circulating variants.
“The potential implication is that it can develop resistance to the vaccine,” Hanley said, explaining that is the reason for the urgency in getting everyone vaccinated. Wearing a mask, he says, is still one of the best ways to prevent further spreading the virus, however, people who have been vaccinated do not spread the virus, Hanley said, so they don’t have to wear masks.
“Masking is something that’s really important, but not nearly as important as getting the vaccine,” he said. “It’s important that people know they can still get treatment if they develop any symptoms.”
Hanley’s opinion throughout the pandemic has been that the resulting complications from COVID-19 are at the heart of the issue. Most people who get COVID do fine, he said, even if they are sick for a few days. At this point, he said, the healthcare industry is much more capable of handling COVID, simply because they know what they’re dealing with and basically what to expect.
“It’s not the dangerous type of virus that we thought it was a year ago,” Hanley said. “I’m still appropriately concerned. I still want to try to get past the pandemic, but, I’m feeling pretty good about where we are. As long as we maintain what we’re doing and continue to improve, we’re in a good position. If it gets worse, we’ll be resilient.”
As far as vaccine safety, Hanley said, he errs on the side of being conservative in his use of them, meaning he does not want to order more than he’s able to distribute in his clinic.
“I think we should all remain vigilant,” Hanley said. “We should all remain cautious, but we shouldn’t let this affect our lives. I would like for us to learn from this, to see if there are better ways to handle similar situations in the future. Overall, we’re doing a good job. We are a good community and disagreements are fine, this is how we learn from each other, but I don’t want this to be so divisive.”