We know they are heroes. It’s why we salute the brave and determined NHS staff from our doorsteps.
But what can we know of the inner turmoil of working on the front line, the emotional and mental toll of sharing death and suffering in such numbers?
And the constant fear of every healthcare worker – from consultant to porter – that they could be next.
Or that they could spread the virus to loved ones who they dare not even hug.
The reality of the spiralling mental health crisis on the corona front line is brought home starkly by the recruitment of psychologists with experience of war zones.
As well as treating depressions, some suicidal, the specialists are expecting thousands more medics to suffer PTSD, the life-sapping condition afflicting too many of our military veterans.
The Sunday People has long campaigned for proper recognition of the trauma and its devastating effect on the lives of people sent into battle for our country.
Nurses, doctors and their support workers are sadly now in the same category.
Scandalously, loved ones in care homes appear to be treated as little more than collateral damage.
As the Sunday People was first to demand, and we do again today, the inhumane treatment of the vulnerable in their twilight years has to stop.
The elderly are as entitled to human rights as anyone. How they are treated is a measure of the kind of society we are. By this measure – we are failing.
The toll on our NHS is hard and hidden. There will be a large hole in the service in future as stress takes its toll.
The nation will never forgive a Government which failed its elderly or neglected to provide its frontline forces with the protection they deserve – masks, gowns visors, ventilators and the rest. The shortages of PPE are shaming.
But if anybody can raise the nation’s spirits in these bleak times it is Captain Thomas Moore, whose resolution to lap his garden raised more than £25million for health charities.
To those on the front line we borrow his own words and say:
“Hold your head up high.”
