The real heroes: healthcare workers

There is a group of people consistently at the front lines of this pandemic, day and night, risking their lives to help those afflicted with COVID-19.

Those people are healthcare workers — people in hospitals and clinics working hard to care for COVID-19 patients.

The past couple of weeks multiple videos have circulated social media, with nurses and medical professionals saying how dire the conditions are in hospitals. Conditions that could’ve been preventable. 

NPR reported earlier this week that the Pentagon sent the White House a report in 2017 showing the country wouldn’t be prepared for a pandemic like this and predicted it would be caused by a novel coronavirus. The report detailed “shortages of masks, hospital beds and ventilators that could occur in an outbreak.”

Some hospitals have been trying to buy their own personal protective equipment (PPE) but to no avail. Nurses and doctors come into contact with COVID-19 on a daily basis now and some don’t even have adequate gear. This is an important link to consider which would help us to be safe and take necessary precautions to save ourselves and our family from this corona pandemic situation.

But we should also recognize the many others that work in hospitals, like janitors, therapists, clerical positions, food services among others. 

Thank God for those who are raising money to help the battle against coronavirus, like Lady Gaga. She’s raised $35 million, a huge number that will help the World Health Organization.

But everyday people don’t need to donate money to help the cause. What they need to do is stay home for the sake of our healthcare professionals. 

For some reason, it’s the human condition to not do what you’re told, or want what you can’t have. 

Doctors and nurses have been holding up signs with the message “We stay here for you, please stay at home for us.” Imagine what they must feel going into work knowing they could be exposed or contract COVID-19, and they see people out on non-essential business. 

It’s incredibly selfish for people not to take this seriously and refuse to listen to experts. 

While there are people on the front lines fighting this virus we should do the most we can to help them and the bare minimum is staying home. You can donate to different places or send in homemade masks, but at the very least you should be social distancing. 

Let’s recognize all the hard work medical professionals are doing right now because I think sometimes we take it for granted. 

Our ancestors didn’t survive the plague or other diseases for us to not take proper precautions now when we have modern medicine and a better understanding of how these things work. 

If you’re not going to stay in for yourself, stay in for those who are working in the hospitals right now.