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Tuesday, September 28th, 2021

US public health workers leaving ‘in droves’ amid pandemic burnout

Author:     Abdullah Shihipar
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Thu 23 Sep 2021 05.30 EDT
 Link: US public health workers leaving ‘in droves’ amid pandemic burnout
Stephan:   One very negative but almost never discussed aspect of the anti-vaxxer, anti-masker movement is the impact these people are having on the nation's healthcare system. American hospitals, particularly in Red value states where vaccination rates are low, are on the verge of collapse because 95% of the people crowding those hospitals are anti-vaxxers and anti=maskers, who have sabotaged those hospitals' functioning because of their stupidity. As a result, healthcare workers are fed up, and tired of risking their lives to care for people who wouldn't be there if they had just gotten vaccinated.
Just as the pandemic has fuelled a burnout crisis among frontline medical staff, it has been calamitous for the mental health of workers in public health. Credit: Rex/Shutterstock

Alexandra was working in the public health emergencies unit in a major north-eastern American city when the first wave of the pandemic hit. Although her job was in public health policy research, and not treating Coovid-19 patients on the frontlines of the healthcare system, she recalls the spring of 2020 as a blur of 24-hour shifts.

Beginning last March, Alexandra estimates that she and her colleagues worked the equivalent of three full-time years in 12 months. (Her name has been changed to protect anonymity.)

“There was no overtime, there was no hazard pay,” Alexandra recalls. Throughout the public health department where she worked, symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress-related physical maladies were commonplace among staff.

This summer, despite the protestations of her superiors, Alexandra quit. She says she’s one of roughly 25 staff members who have left the department since the start of the pandemic.

Alexandra’s story is not unique. Just as the pandemic has fuelled a […]

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1 Comment

  1. Albus Eddie on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 5:58 am

    Public Health is one of those areas of infrastructure, just like roads and bridges, which we have neglected since the Reagan era. The bills are coming due. Will we have the foresight to make the investment?