{"id":108672,"date":"2021-12-13T15:16:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T20:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=108672"},"modified":"2021-12-13T15:16:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T20:16:49","slug":"doctor-curmudgeon-even-bats-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=108672","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae Even Bats Do It!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-75425\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ubm-photo-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ubm-photo-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ubm-photo.jpg 535w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist\/cardiologist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Galahad, the Siberian Husky, who is Doctor Curmudgeon\u2019s cousin and insures that the household does not fall apart (between his other positions, including one on an important think tank) entered his primary physician\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>He was quite well, but it was time for his annual physical, flu vaccine and third COVID vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>Settling himself into a comfortable chair, Galahad opened the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>As he finished reading the first article, he became aware of somebody joining him two chairs away.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cGally, it\u2019s so good to see you\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Turning his head, the husky saw Mattie, a Labradoodle and close friend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaven\u2019t seen you in far too long\u201d said Galahad. \u201cWe have to resume our monthly lunch dates now that we are both fully vaccinated. Texting and Facetime are great, but so good to sniff you in person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndeed, I agree. Are you all well? Anything new?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Galahad shook his head. \u201cThe Doctors Curmudgeon have reopened their office on a limited basis, only to those who are fully vaccinated. And I can do my work with Facetime and webinars. We only go out for important things, like our medical appointments. And we always wear our masks outside. Not too comfortable over my muzzle\u2026but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear you, \u201cagreed Mattie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve heard me talk about my college classmate, Chloe\u2026you remember, the pug who works at the New York Academy of Sciences editorial board?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Galahad nodded his head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, let me tell you about an interesting piece they published recently. It was in the April issue of their Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey studied bats and social distancing,\u201d continued Mattie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems that when bats are sick, they simply isolate themselves from the rest of the group cluster. This is very rare for them, because they like to stay together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMayra Weinberg, a doctoral candidate, Dr. Kelsey Moreno and Professor Yossi Yovel at Tel Aviv University studied Egyptian fruit bats. These bats are very social and live together congenially in communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey found that sick bats are very protective of their colony and voluntarily isolate themselves from the rest as soon as they fall ill. A sick bat just backs away from the others and does not rejoin the community until that bat recovers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no idea,\u201d said Galahad. Even people don\u2019t always do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndeed,\u201d nodded Mattie. \u201cAnd it was surprising to the researcher, because bats are so highly social. Sick bats just choose to stay away from others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am aware that other wild animals try to hide their sickness, in an attempt to avoid looking defenseless and frail,\u201d said Galahad<\/p>\n<p>Mattie continued \u201cAnd their behavior had nothing to do with a response from the healthy members of their cohort. It was not that the well bats avoided the sick ones. The sick bats just moved away and perched alone, separating themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow! That is really fascinating behavior. And seeing you, my friend is such a treat. Let\u2019s plan on dinner or lunch soon with our families since we\u2019re all vaccinated with three doses, \u201csaid Galahad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSounds great, answered Mattie. \u201cI\u2019ll talk with Mom and we\u2019ll get that arranged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The door to the waiting room was opened. A nurse poked his head out and said, \u201cGalahad? Dr. Dolittle will see you now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Curmudgeon suggests &#8220;Bitter Medicine\u201d, Dr. Eugene Eisman&#8217;s story of his experiences&#8211;from the humorous to the intense&#8212;as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n<p>Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. &#8211;on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bitter-Medicine-Doctors-Year-Vietnam\/dp\/0615874347\">Amazo<\/a>n<\/p>\n<p>Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.<\/p>\n<p>SERMO <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sermo.com\">www.sermo.com<\/a> \u201ctalk real world medicine\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[si-contact-form form=&#8217;2&#8242;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist\/cardiologist Galahad, the Siberian Husky, who is Doctor Curmudgeon\u2019s cousin and insures that the household does not fall apart (between his other positions, including one on an important think tank) entered his primary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27925],"class_list":["post-108672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-doctor-curmudgeon-even-bats-do-it"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108672"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}