All across the globe, healthcare workers have rallied together to fight the spreading Coronavirus pandemic. Whether the bulky face guards they are required to wear has caused bruising, or the surgical masks make their ears chafe, healthcare workers have begun to resemble the rest of the world: tired and defeated. And yet, despite the grievances their professions bring them, they persevere.
What makes healthcare workers go to work each day, knowing fully well that they’re far more likely to contact it than the average citizen? During the spread of Ebola, the proportions of the infected were highly uneven- a healthcare worker was 32 times as likely to get the disease as compared to someone in the general public. The answer to this question is subjective, and has a multitude of factors influencing them. Is it pure moral selflessness or the practitioners code they vowed to uptake? Is it concern for their family’s income or the fact that they know they can help combat the virus? Regardless of what the driving force behind their actions is, bravery is not boundless. Eventually they will reach a point where they question their decisions and obligations. How long can they be expected to fight at the front lines, especially when the number of cases in each country continues to soar, reaching new highs everyday? How many of them will be infected and die before the rest of them walk away? It has been known to happen before when pandemics get too overwhelmingly large to handle; physicians fled Europe during the Black Death and the great influenza.
When the words healthcare workers are said, what comes to your mind? Doctor in lab coats, nurses in scrubs, perhaps the first responders you see on the street? In reality there are so many more workers that come under the umbrella term ‘healthcare’. There are technicians, assistants, pharmacists, clerks, in addition to doctors and nurses- all of
whom contribute to creating a delicate house of cards. If one of them is gone, the entire thing collapses. And without a healthcare system, the world truly is condemned. It is easy to insist that workers in the medical field continue going to work and put their lives on the line every day- one can argue that, after all, they chose to have the careers they do right now. But people forsake their duties all the time, and in this case, if they do, we can forget about having a life free of social distancing and self isolation.
Healthcare workers have proved that they are the backbone of our countries, multiple times now, and regardless of whether facing a pandemic is their obligation or not, should truly be treated with immense gratitude and undying respect.