As pandemic rages, health care workers deserve our prayers, thanks. They are heroes

The year 2020 has already been immortalized as the year of the COVID-19 world pandemic. As I reflect on the past several months, I find myself overwhelmed with emotions, ranging from the comical and humorous to the sad and tragic.

In the beginning months of the pandemic, I remember this middle-age man running around in a grocery store in Boise, urging people to buy and eat avocados, and claiming that it would protect them from the coronavirus. In Michigan, my sister-in-law reported that she could not find fresh garlic at any of her local markets. Eventually, she realized that people were grabbing garlic off the shelves because of a wild rumor that garlic repels the virus — as if it were some kind of vampire virus.

On the serious side, this pandemic has turned lives upside down. It has demanded sacrifices from everyone, and in some instances, it took the ultimate sacrifice. For families who lost loved ones, the cost could not have been higher.

I am thinking of this elderly couple who died of the coronavirus only five hours apart in a hospital in Washington state. Shortly before they succumbed to the deadly illness, the hospital staff set up a FaceTime call with their children and grandchildren, and a chaplain, so that they could all say goodbye. There was no service, no funeral, no burial that the family relatives could attend. They took comfort in the hope that telling their story would save someone else’s life — if only this deadly virus would be taken seriously.

I take this opportunity to pay homage to all of the health care workers who are battling this pandemic around the state, nation and world. I am sure that many of them never dreamed of such a scenario when they went into their chosen profession. I cannot begin to imagine the toll exacted on these modern-day heroes, who are being asked to sacrifice more than the average person.

Some of these workers, who run into danger every day, have made the conscious decision to stay away from their spouses, children, grandchildren and parents until this health crisis is over. We have read or watched stories of health care workers staying in hotels or recreational vehicles in order to protect their loved ones.

The general public, on the other hand, has been asked to make sacrifices that pale in comparison. They have been asked to wear masks in crowded areas and to socially distance, two simple countermeasures that can slow the spread of this virus. In general, most people have complied with these suggestions.

According to a historian, the last time the American public was asked to make a collective sacrifice was during World War II. From 1942 to 1945, there was heavy rationing of food — such as meats, milk, butter, cheese and sugar — as well as clothing, tires and gasoline. In a 1945 Life Magazine ad, the Bell company asked people to limit their phone calls to just 5 minutes to keep phone lines open. There were 3 million cars produced in 1941, and only 139 were produced during the rest of the war because of a shortage of steel and other valuable materials.

Back then, people were united and banded together with the purpose of putting others before themselves. If someone got married at Christmas time, neighbors would send their ration of sugar so that there could be a wedding cake.

We have often heard the World War II generation called “the Greatest Generation.” At the core of this appellation was a willingness to care about others, to serve and protect others. From the soldiers who enrolled to serve their country, to the women who volunteered in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WACS) and in the women’s naval reserve as Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), this generation consisted of citizens from all walks of life who responded to a higher calling — and understood the meaning of sacrifice and service for the common good.

Sadly, there are some in the current generation who refuse to follow the simple rules of wearing a mask and distancing themselves to protect others, particularly the most vulnerable in our society. Meanwhile, the pandemic rages on. More than 215,000 Americans have died; roughly 8 million have been infected.

Despite repeated warnings from health experts, some of our leaders continue to claim that this virus is no big deal, that it is simply like the flu and that it will miraculously go away. Denying the seriousness of this health crisis is simply a cop-out and an insult to all the families who lost a loved one to this deadly disease. And it’s an insult to all of the health care workers who are risking their lives every day to help us.