Support health care heroes

Extreme gratitude

Regarding “Your call to duty as a COVID-19 ICU nurse,” (A17, April 11): Thank you, Shelby Young Greengrass, for writing your passionate and heartwrenching essay. Halfway through, already teary-eyed and not wanting to read the entirety of what your patients must endure — I thought, how much can our compassionate health care professionals endure, hour by hour, day after day, weeks stretching into months, and then over a year? I’ve read many national news articles, sometimes quoting health care workers’ concerns — just a statement here or there — but never to this gut-punching level that you and others might have had to resort to — just “pick a spot on the floor and stare” along with prayers, so as to continue stoically with your patients’ vital treatments. My extreme gratitude goes out to Greengrass and to all of the caring medical providers, soldiering on throughout the U.S.

Considering the articles I’ve recently read regarding the alarmingly large percentages of COVID vaccine-resistant Americans, Greengrass’s poignant “one day in the life of ” essay should be read — word for word — to all of the followers of community and faith-based leaders throughout the U.S., along with accompanying fact-based medical explanation of herd immunity to stop this pandemic. Perhaps then (I can only hope), they’ll do their patriotic duty to help all fellow Americans and, ultimately, our dedicated medical care providers — and get vaccinated.

Marilyn K., Houston

Shelby Young Greengrass’ essay in Sunday’s Houston Chronicle should be read by everyone who denies or downplays the seriousness of COVID, refuses to get vaccinated and won’t wear a mask or practice social distancing even now.

And it should serve as a gut-wrenching testimonial to the dedication of and sacrifice by health care professionals in Houston and throughout the world. Roy Lively, Kingwood