Have you seen those video reports about European shows of support for medical workers, who are now on the front lines? They are deeply moving and feel exactly right. Right now, that is what brings society together and gives it hope.
Take, for example, this sobbing nurse, being sent off to her shift by the applause of her neighbors.
Here, unfortunately, everything is different. Here, doctors in videos like these look like this:
And the authorities’ response is not, “We’re leaving immediately and bringing masks and respirators for everyone,” but rather, “She’s lying about everything; everything is fine at our hospital, and we have all the supplies we need.”
By now, we all understand how important it is to wash our hands and keep 2 meters away from other people. We know why quarantine is necessary.
But it still seems to me that there is no broad public understanding of how important it is to protect healthcare workers from infection—or of just how catastrophic the situation is right now.
This is not some minor detail. The horrifying scale of the epidemic in Italy and Spain is due in large part to the fact that, early on, doctors there did not have proper protective equipment; they infected one another and then went on to infect others.
A doctor with COVID-19 and without a proper respirator is a weapon of mass destruction. By the time he realizes he is sick, he will have infected many of the people most vulnerable to the disease. And it does not matter that he does not work in an infectious disease hospital. Even if he caught it on a tram and then went to work in his surgical ward.
In Russia, this is a complete catastrophe right now. And it is made much worse by the fact that the authorities are denying that there is any serious problem at all.
You do not have to take the doctors’ union at its word. There are 3.5 million medical workers in the country, which means some of your friends or relatives are in this field too. Ask them whether they have adequate protective equipment.
Ask any paramedic on an ambulance crew. You will hear laughter in response.
That is why this “nationwide inspection” delivering protective equipment is so important, and I urge everyone to support it. They are absolutely right to say that if everyone becomes an information sponsor—helping spread the word—the situation will start changing quickly. The money that needs to be allocated now for protective gear and additional ventilators is laughably small compared with the scale of the problems heading our way.
I fully understand that the masks the union itself will be able to buy with the money raised and distribute to hospitals are just a drop in the ocean. So be it. I want that drop to exist, and I will make my small contribution to it. I will donate 3,000 rubles. With my money, protective gear will be bought for several doctors, and maybe it will be “my” doctors who do not get infected themselves and do not infect anyone else.
What we really want is a genuine nationwide act of solidarity, one that truly brings everyone together. Let’s make that happen. Protect the doctors, and we protect ourselves. Why shouldn’t that be a national idea?