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Why is this still happening? https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1253617676657844224
We get that London is crowded but, like, how is it whenever we venture outside we're constantly looking over our shoulder, hyper-aware of where every other human being in sight is, but here we've just got dozens of people having a fucking party?
If you want to support the NHS, consider not giving them hundreds of new patients. Christ almighty.
They've already co-opted our rainbow symbol, and you can bet we'll get meaningless badges to wear eventually. You've heard about people FB snitching on non-clappers. It's all so gross. https://twitter.com/LeoDaFinchy/status/1253666611850067968?s=19
If you want to do the clapping thing, have at it. Whatever. But they're not "heroes"; they're ordinary people with jobs who didn't sign up to be sacrificed on the altar of government incompetence. They want to help people, and that shouldn't require this level of risk.
They're not warriors going into battle. They're nurses and doctors and carers and healthcare assistants and cleaners and scientists and receptionists and physios and dietitians and...
Do you know what it takes to run a hospital? Do you know what you're asking of so many ordinary people with ordinary jobs? By employing this kind of language, you normalise the danger they're facing just to care for the sick.
Heroes suffer. Heroes do more than is asked of them. Heroes put others before themselves. Heroes die. We don't need heroes: we need a properly funded healthcare infrastructure that is prepared for predictable events like this.
We don't want a hospital run by beaten-up, battle-weary heroes who push their bodies and minds beyond rational limits to eke out one more minute of life or comfort for every single patient. We shouldn't *need* that!
We want a hospital where, even in a pandemic, people go to work for a shift in safety and then come home to relax and rest, returning for the next shift alert and motivated.
Heroic efforts are unsustainable. You can't rely on heroes. Heroes are born out of desperation.
If you call them heroes, you absolve yourself of the need to care about them, because a hero exists to serve others. Heroes are sacrificial. Heroes are beyond human, so don't need to be protected like humans. They can take inhuman suffering.
We don't need heroes. We need people being kind to each other.
We worked for the NHS for 10 years, and Spousebot still does (sort of - she's PHE, but in a hospital lab). It's a big, complicated place of work. We know a lot of people being asked to work in very dangerous conditions.
