Dr Mike Ryan suffering from PTSD after death threats during pandemic

SLIGO native Dr Mike Ryan, head of emergen-cies at the World Health Organisation, has revealed he had never been as wor-ried for his safety as dur-ing the recent Covid-19 pandemic Ryan, a native of Curry, was speaking at an online seminar organised by University College Cork where he said he believes that he probably has post-traumatic stress disorder. He told the conference of suffering from PTSD after receiving death threats arising from his work with WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A veteran of many international war zones. Dr Ryan said he has never been as worried for his safety as during the pandemic.

Expressing concern about the state of the health workforce world-wide, The Irish Times reported that Dr Ryan described the proportion of staff suffering PTSD after the pandemic as "horrifying". "We'vehad death threats here, we've been shouted at. I've worked all over the world in the most extreme situations, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I have never been as scared personally for my own safety as I have been during Covid. That's an incredible thing to say, living in Geneva most of the time." While ordinary people had a "deep gratitude" for healthcare workers' efforts, there was a "dark, dark periphery" of people who "seek to destroy" com-munities coming together.

Dr Ryan said the Covid-19 pandemic is still not over and health ser-vices and their staff are ill-prepared to deal with any recurrence of mass infections. With "considerable uncertainties" about the future course of the pan-demic, the world could yet be "taken by surprise" by the emergence of a new variant, he wanted.