In praise of health care workers’ heroic COVID efforts

As we mark the anniversary of the commonwealth’s coronavirus state of emergency, all of us should shout out a collective thanks to all our health care workers, who have persevered through this hell-and-back ordeal for the past 12 months.

Most of us will never understand the overwhelming physical and emotional toll this pandemic has taken on countless doctors, nurses and support staff, who have done their utmost to treat those stricken to the best of their ability, only to see that almost 9,000 of the state’s more than 16,100 confirmed COVID deaths have occurred in hospitals.

And of course, they themselves have borne the brunt of infections and deaths sustained by COVID-related professions.

And we include the medical personnel and underpaid aides in our state’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities, who dealt with our most susceptible citizens, a group that suffered a disproportionate share of COVID fatalities.

Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley in Littleton, with the death Maria Krier of Lunenburg, a nurse who publicly disclosed the shortcomings at that facility, showed us just how vulnerable COVID caregivers could be.

All this at a time when many of these selfless medical professionals were forced to take pay cuts because of hospitals’ inability to offer their more lucrative, discretionary services, like elective surgery and medical office visits.

We’ve all had bad days on the job, which often led to taking our work home and letting our day’s frustrations influence our behavior towards loved ones.

Imagine spending a 12hour shift working in a hospital ICU, tending to the most critical COVID patients, and then wondering — despite all the safety equipment worn and precautions taken — if somehow it was still possible to take this horrific virus home with you and infect family members, especially those among the most vulnerable populations.

Many medical workers went to great lengths to avoid such a calamity, including staying in hotels, making other remote living arrangements, or simply discarding work clothes at the doorstep and immediately taking a shower.

Yes, the relentless toll of sick and dying — particularly at the onset of this global virus — presented a crushing burden that only their professionalism, commitment, and support from colleagues and family allowed them to overcome.

Without a vaccine or proven treatment methods in the early stages of this pandemic, medical staffers were forced to utilize trial-and-error methods on these gravely ill individuals.

And just when it seemed this virus had run its course over the summer, another onslaught of cases in late fall and winter again tried these workers’ mettle, testing their physical and mental endurance.

But now there indeed appears to be a light at the terminus of this seemingly endless coronavirus tunnel.

With the approval of three effective U.S. vaccines and the expectation of their increasing availability, COVID cases and deaths in this state and across the country have declined precipitously.

That’s lightened the load for our health care community, though no one has dared declare victory just yet.

But there will come a time — not too far off we hope — when circumstances will allow us to view this virus as a manageable fact of life.

At which time we’d urge the governor to proclaim a statewide day of thanks — maybe even a series of Duck Boat parades — for all our health care workers’ heroic efforts throughout this crisis.

That’s a suitable honor to bestow on these true champions.