Last summer I came home after testing patients in a COVID clinic where I was forced to reuse the same gown all day. When I got home, I didn’t want to risk infecting my family. So I took off all my clothes before entering the front door. My children were amused. But I was worried.
The anxiety of being unprotected while caring for patients with this virus is unlike any other I have felt. It’s a fear that I know every health worker feels. And then things changed. I got vaccinated.
Last Sunday, while volunteering to vaccinate others at a community center, I felt relief. I wasn’t worried about becoming infected. I wasn’t worried about making my family sick. Free from fear, I could focus completely on caring for the person in front of me.
Freedom from fear is something every single health worker in every community deserves to feel.
But over 17,000 unprotected health workers have died from COVID-19. Without masks, community health workers have knocked on doors in the poorest neighborhoods to find COVID patients. Without being vaccinated, midwives and nurses have delivered babies in community clinics.
We applaud health workers as heroes. But applause is not enough. If we respect them, we must protect them.
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