On Frontline Workers
250,000+
According to a recent Johns Hopkins Global Health Now newsletter I received in my inbox:
“COVID-19 has taken more than 250,000 lives in the US—more than strokes, suicides, and car crashes combined in a typical year, CNN reports.
At least 10X more have died from COVID-19 than the 24,166 typically killed annually by car crashes.
COVID-19 exceeds average annual flu deaths by more than 5X.
And by January, COVID-19 deaths will likely outpace the leading cause of death—heart disease, said vaccine expert Peter Hotez: 2,500 COVID-19 deaths per month vs. ~2,350 from heart disease, per IHME.”
'The public has not listened': Nursing home cases surge to all-time high as COVID-19 sweeps US – USA TODAY
‘People are going to die’: Hospitals in half the states are facing a massive staffing shortage as Covid-19 surges – STAT
The headlines become grimmer and grimmer as the days continue.
Frontline workers: grocery store clerks, postal office workers, coroners, nurses, food pantry organizers, bus and truck drivers, doctors, nursing home workers, janitors, service workers, and more.
Overwhelmingly women, overwhelmingly people of color, overwhelmingly low wages.
For far too long, we have ignored them and have devalued their work. Right now, we are calling them heroes. Now we realize that we can not live without them. They have been bestowed with gifts of food, dancing, celebrations in the streets, and magazine covers. Everything except for what they need: for people to stay home, social distance, and wear a mask, leadership to allocate financial resources as well as PPE and other life-saving supplies, and after the future.
“HEROES OF THE FRONT LINES”
Stories of the courageous workers risking their own lives to save ours
“Meet the COVID-19 frontline heroes”
Public Health. Without it, nothing else exists. But our government at all levels has shown how little it has cared about collective health way before this pandemic. How many rural hospitals have we allowed to close down? How much money do we invest not just in health care but in health services and to our workers? How sad does it look as we watch police officers across American cities armored in gear that makes them look like they are ready for combat, while health care professionals wrap themselves in trash bags and wear masks so long, they end up falling apart?
They deserve better. And so do we.
It’s a theme here on the blog, the idea of constantly thinking about the future. This is important to me, not just because my friends and I want families one day, but because a generation will be looking back at us in their history books, and they will be learning from us about what to do and what not to do. I am embarrassed about the things they might say. About what we should have been doing and about what we couldn’t get right.
And of course, I am thinking about the future of our frontline workers.
About the trauma and grief and isolation of working near death and sickness all day every day, while leadership and fake science politicize and lie about what you know you see and experience every day.
About the risks, our frontline workers take delivering mail, stocking up products, working at a grocery store, or cleaning a building, as people refuse to wear masks and walk right past them without ever knowing their name. I can’t imagine the immense trauma, pain, and sadness our ‘heroes’ might be facing.
I am thinking about our selfishness.
I think about how we might be indebted to these people many of us will never know.
Recently, I can’t help but also think about 9/11 and this excerpt from a Vox article on the “September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which pays out claims for deaths and illnesses related to the attack”:
“Our nation owes each of you a profound debt that no words or deeds will ever repay,” Trump said during the bill signing ceremony. “But we can, and we will keep our nation’s promise to you.”
Under the bill, $10.2 billion will be authorized for the fund for the next 10 years, then additional billions until 2090, essentially covering the surviving 9/11 responders for the rest of their lives. This is a major win for first responders, who have been pushing for permanent funding for over a decade.”
The future.
I know what many of you might be thinking- a pandemic and a terrorist attack is not the same thing. Of course, I don’t want to minimize terrorism and the seriousness that is purposefully targeting innocent American citizens.
But in a way…it can be argued that this pandemic has been a threat to American citizens and our security.
And especially to our front line workers. You might argue that this is their job. That nurses take care of us when we are sick, and that grocery store clerks check us out when we get our groceries. And to a certain extent, that’s true.
It is the job of a firefighter to extinguish a fire. But when the magnitude of such an incident is beyond human imagination and presents a greater long-term toll on the body, physically, emotionally, and mentally- their actions become more than just their ‘job.’ It is an act of selflessness that is closest to divinity. It is risking your life, health, and well-being for the masses. It is understanding that the world is big and you are small and it is hoping that your sacrifices will be worth it.
Our frontline workers are risking their lives, but we are showing them that their sacrifice doesn’t matter, and we (and by we, I mainly mean our politicians and some of us) are making it harder for them to do their jobs.
So when I think of the future for these workers, I think about what these people deserve, financially and socially, as they work to rebuild their lives and families once this pandemic is over. After witnessing the continued havoc of COVID-19, I imagine many people have committed themselves to the work of public health and infectious diseases, as 9/11 persuaded people to choose careers in national security and defense. But I am also sure that our actions are showing many people that this work isn’t valued. Because as soon as the truth becomes inconvenient to us, we stop believing it.
We can remedy this if we choose to promise to take care of those who are risking their lives, including starting a fund for Frontline Workers. Their actions these past months have been nothing but heroic. We can thank them by ensuring that no matter what happens down the line, their families will be taken care of, receive the care they need and that nothing they did or continue to do will be taken for granted.
the picture above from https://unsplash.com/@mbaumi?utm_source=squarespace&medium=referral