Dr. Kiran Dintiala (aka Dr. Calm), a physician and stress-management consultant based in San Diego who trained in India and holds a Master of Public Health, addresses public panic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking from the frontline, he describes widespread anxiety, supply hoarding (anecdote: one person bought 17,000 toilet rolls), and social friction; he emphasizes that staying calm is essential and announces a planned series of short (1–2 minute) educational videos with practical tips for the public, officials, and healthcare workers.
Questions this video answers
In one of the hospitals in San Diego, California.
India.
A master's in public health.
One to two minutes each.
17,000 toilet rolls.
Chapters
Foreign. Hello guys, this is Dr. Kiran Dintiala. People also call me Dr. Kham. I'm a physician, speaker, author and a stress management consultant. Originally I am from India. I was born in India, brought up in India and then I came here to the United States for higher studies. And today here I work as a physician in one of the hospitals in San Diego, California. In fact, I just came from work. And you know what I see every day is very concerning. People are dying. A lot of people with the infection are so anxious, fearful, what is going to happen to them? And being at the front line as a healthcare provider, I notice this every day. Not only just people, even the government officials, the healthcare personnel, everyone is scrambling, not knowing what to do. Of course, obviously this is a pandemic and everyone is affected because of it. Schools are closed, businesses are not doing well, restaurants are closed. People can't go anywhere, they're stuck at home. There is so much change in such a short period of time. So the panic and the fear that people are experiencing is totally understandable. And I just started thinking, how can I help people in this situation? Apart from being a physician and seeing patients, how else can I help? Now being a stress management expert, I just have a different perspective about this pandemic than most others. You know, what I think is important at this time is we all need to stay calm. We need to stay calm in the midst of COVID That is the only way that we are going to face this effectively. That is the only way that we are going to come out of this least harmed. What I notice is because of panic, people are doing unfortunately stupid things. I'm sorry to say that, but going and buying all the toilet paper rolls available in the whole world, you know, nothing is available. There is no food in the stores. So there are. When, when people panic, what happens is greed and fear takes over. They lose their rational thinking and because of that everyone suffers. And I am worried that, you know, recently I saw there is a guy who bought 17,000 toilet rolls. What are you going to do with that? Right? That is insane. I also saw that, you know, people are fighting in their communities because of lack of food, because of difference in opinions, civil war may break out. So my recommendation, the first thing that we all need to do, we all are in this together, right? So we all need to do is stay calm, find calm. Yes, you may say that. Oh, how can I stay calm? And everything around me is going crazy. I understand that, yes. But that's the reason I'm here. I'm here to help you. What I want to do is I want to release a series of educational videos that are going to help people, the public, the government officials, the doctors, everyone, to find calm in the midst of COVID These are going to be short, one to two minute simple videos that you can implement immediately. Recommendations, the tips. All right. So this is what I'm going to do because I think it is important. And also I'm a public health official, like my masters in public health. So I definitely get the part that, you know, we need to face this together and calm down the public. Right. All right. Thanks so much for watching. Again, this is Dr. Kiran Dintiala. I'm a physician and a stress management expert. Stay calm and stay tuned. Thank you.
