It will break us.
If HCWs manage to get through this pandemic with our physical & psychological health intact, it will break us to have pundits, politicians, neighbors accuse us of overreacting. To accuse us of destroying the economy.

It will break us to deny that the crisis ever was. People who haven’t seen what we’ve seen. People who don’t understand the science. Or epidemiology. People who don’t understand that less death was our one & only goal.

Watching people die. People we love. People who were strangers before we met them at their sickest. Watching systems we depend on bend or break. That is enough.

Pundits, politicians, neighbors, we appreciate your thanks but we don’t need it. What we need is for you to understand that less death is a good thing, avoiding overwhelming the healthcare system is a good thing. And compassion wouldn’t hurt either.