Emailectomies During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Aftermath¹

“Reply All”: Now more than ever, we need people to think three times before hitting “Reply All.” Ward Wood sends an email to the “Cousins of APA Members” listserv expressing an opinion. One of the recipients, Ray Isaacs, hits “Reply All” and says, “I agree, Ward.” Why would Ray think all the other members of the listserv would care that he agrees? Using “Reply All” tells us much more about Ray than it does about his opinion. Another example: Patricia Earle sends an email to a group across the country announcing a new appointment in her department. Samuel White sends an email to the same list complimenting the person appointed. The appointee sends an email to everyone saying to Dr. White, “You’re too kind.” Only Dr. White needed to get that email. Don’t use “Reply All” much, at least not until we’ve returned to normal functioning after the pandemic. And if we never return to pre-COVID functioning, maybe it’s best to always restrict your use of “Reply All.”

No standing: I have received more emails from some organizations since the pandemic began than I did before this spring. The emails inform me about their organization’s assessments of or opinions about the pandemic. But many of these organizations have no standing to be informing me about COVID-19. I value these unsolicited opinions on the pandemic as much as I would an email on the subject from the Association of Dairy Farmers of Brooklyn. Even more bothersome is when I receive an email related to the mental health effects of COVID-19 from such organizations—especially when the email adds nothing that will change anything. I received one such email recently from the Viewpoint Coalition, an email directed to individuals in the medical field, not to the public.

The email had this basic message: The health care workforce is stressed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many workers feel it would be helpful to talk to a mental health professional. Stigma and concerns about the impact on their career keep them from doing so. The Viewpoint Coalition thinks this shouldn’t be so and should stop.

This is a “nice” message, but it doesn’t further the discussion. There’s no reason any person in the medical field, including all those actually feeling the stress of providing treatment and care in the pandemic, should give any weight to what the Viewpoint Coalition believes on this matter. If an email has no benefit to individuals working to save the lives and minds of infected individuals and their families and is a burden to them, that email should not be sent.

All organizations like the Viewpoint Coalition should have sent out one email at the onset of the pandemic, but can send one email now, stating, “In light of the unprecedented burden on all who work in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, Viewpoint Coalition will not send any emails to health care professionals for the duration of the pandemic and its short-term aftermath. We will, instead, regularly post and update relevant information on our website that you are free to consult at any time at viewpointcolation.org.”

Business disguised as information: You open an email from Abracadabra Informatics, and in the largest, boldest font is the statement: “Practical information to encourage people’s well-being during this pandemic.” You scroll through lists of phrases suggesting good ideas. Finally, you reach the bright-colored button that says “Order online.” Companies selling items to help health care professionals and administrators should tell us in the first line that the company is selling products in the email. Ironically, this company, in a tiny type size at the bottom, informs readers who got that far and can read that size type that the company “honors your time and privacy online and intend not to abuse it.” Another company told me at the end of its email that the purpose of the email was to sell me ventilators. Quite frankly, throughout this pandemic, I have not personally been interested in purchasing a ventilator.

Acronyms: I received an email about the 2020 Annual Meeting for AAPL (true names used in this account). The registration fee was waived, and I was encouraged to sign up now. As I scrolled down over the topics that were to be covered, one or two looked similar to presentations I’d heard at previous AAPL meetings. But there were many topics that I not only had never heard of but also didn’t have a clue what the session title meant. By clicking on links, I learned that AAPL was focused on ethical standards, legislative advocacy, career advancement, professional support. ... That sounded right. But then on another page I learned this meeting was for the American Association of Professional Landmen and not the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law. Suggestion: Right at the outset of an email, an organization needs to tell us its name and acronym. (For those interested, a landman works with landowners to acquire oil and gas drilling leases. Somehow my activities on AAPL’s website landed me on its email list, and the next day I received an email about dues.)

Webinars as loss leaders, emails as solicitations: An email hits my inbox: XYZ Associates is offering a free educational webinar. Below the description, there’s a large, brightly colored button that says “Register Now.” There’s no reason to read any further; you’re all set. But should you read the tiny print at the bottom, you will find out that registering for the webinar also gives XYZ Associates all sorts of permission to market to you, pass along your email address to others, etc. Be careful.

I receive emails from individuals who give me information about a subject like empathy and then advertise their private practice. Basically they’re using emails to seek out professional clients whom they can help with relaxation techniques, such as hatha, vinyasa, ashtanga, Iyengar, kundalini, bikram, jivamukti, or yin yoga. I’m told in small type at the end that I am on their mailing list because I had contact with them before. I don’t know who they think I am, but it wasn’t me who had prior contact.

Education: Some would say there’s an easy solution to this. Just delete all the emails without reading them. But I have found many of the emails quite useful in advancing my knowledge about not only COVID-19 but also aspects of medicine and psychiatry and the public’s knowledge about them. For example: Many Americans are surprised that if one is poor and black in this country, one is more likely to contract and more likely to die from COVID-19 because Americans fail to recognize that health care disparities based on race and poverty have existed in North America for 400 years; some psychiatric medications, such as haloperidol and valproate, at least in the laboratory, increase resistance to viral infection and may be decreasing the likelihood that persons taking these medications would contract COVID-19; in most of the country, most state hospitals have provided safe sanctuary during the pandemic; FEMA ordered N95 masks at $5.50 each from a bankrupt company with no experience making masks when it could have ordered the exact same masks at $0.79 a mask from the this country’s largest manufacturer of medical masks; the United Nations, which has long resisted making mental illness one of the major noncommunicable diseases, is now saying “depression and anxiety are some of the greatest causes of misery in our world” and the world is not prepared for the coming scourge of mental illness symptoms resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. We each have our own list.

Solution: You have the option to unsubscribe, block, or even report virtually all the types of emails described in this column. Use that power wisely, but without hesitation. A final thought about the world of pass-along emails seems right for this ending: “I wish more people were fluent in silence.” ■