 I've been trying to go out of my way to share stories from nurses and doctors working on the front lines fighting COVID-19 because I think that if we're not there, if we don't know anyone who shares this experience, it's really easy for us as individuals to become complacent, right? Like, we see the numbers tick up and that's terrifying, but when numbers get so big, it's easy for us to kind of like tune out. It's much more easier to conceptualize the pain of one individual. But when we think about hundreds of thousands of people dying from a virus, that's a lot more difficult to imagine because it's such a large scale. So I try to share stories from nurses and doctors so that way we kind of get a sense of what they're going through so we continue to take this seriously. And I want to share three videos from three different nurses and doctors. What they say here is truly gut-wrenching. So the first is from a nurse in Minnesota and she is taking care of COVID-19 patients. She's been on the front lines and she's asked how she's doing in an interview on CNN and she immediately breaks down. It's bad. This is tough to watch, but take a look at what she has to say. I want to bring in Dr. Shirley Z, Associate Director of Hospital Medicine for Hennepin Healthcare. And Dr. thanks for being with us. I know your hospital is in downtown Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota currently dealing with a recent spike in the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19. What has been the hardest part of your job this week? I think it is just the feeling of just suffocating all the time. You know, we're suffocating in our patients' isolation and their fear. It's suffocating in just the emotional and physical exhaustion of all of our colleagues. It's feeling helpless because there's often nothing we can do for people. And I think it's the constant thought of what's coming next. 9,000 Minnesotans were diagnosed with coronavirus on Sunday and then another 9,000 on Monday. And every single day, thousands more people are getting this virus. And we know that means that in a few days, in a week, hundreds of people are going to come into the hospital and hundreds of people are going to die. And I think that sometimes when you hear statistics like that, you become numb to what those numbers mean. But for us, you know, the people that are taking care of these patients, every single number is somebody that we have to look at and say, I'm sorry, there's nothing more I can do for you. And it's just another family. We have to call to tell them that their loved ones are going to die. My heart breaks for everybody who has lost their jobs or their housing and for kids that are able to go to school and for people that can't see their families. But I don't think that people can really comprehend how horrific this disease is unless they've been personally touched by it. I mean, people are literally suffocating inside our hospitals and they are dying alone. And they don't get the luxury to complain about COVID fatigue. And their families don't get the luxury to complain about it because they're living in like COVID hell. We all want to be able to have our lives go back to normal. But it doesn't mean that we can't pretend that this doesn't actually exist. And I think that's the problem is that, you know, no one wants to believe how horrible that is. And so they've just given up. I don't know what to even say. This interview was filmed on December 5th and it's gotten a lot worse since then. So you could only imagine what it's like now. Hospitals are filling up. They're reaching maximum capacity in certain states. And what she describes, it's horrific. People are literally suffocating inside our hospitals and people are dying alone. And she says something that I think is accurate. Nobody wants to believe how horrible it is. So they're just giving up. But they don't get to give up if you're working on the front lines. Like you have no choice. This is your job. And even if you wanted to quit, I feel like you're there and you have that knowledge. So there'd be this sense of obligation. But what we've got to come to terms with as a society is that this is going to affect healthcare workers for decades to come for the rest of their lives. Probably like they're going to suffer from PTSD forever because of the things that they're seeing. Now another nurse from Oklahoma. She's taking care of COVID-19 patients, but it's affected her in a more personal way because she lost both her mother and her husband from COVID-19 within three days. And while her husband and mother were dying from it, the only remaining family member that she had who could have comforted her would have been her son. And he had COVID-19 so she couldn't see him because she had to be healthy to take care of COVID-19 patients. Like her story here, it's just so overwhelming in the situation that she describes here. It's unbearable. It sounds so awful. How are you doing? You know, I think it's just so raw. You know, sometimes I'm grieving for my husband and then I realize my mom's gone, you know, and then I'm grieving for my mom. And I just think, oh, I'm going to go tell Dennis and then Dennis is gone. And so the two people that would have been so supportive had the other one gone, you know, they're both gone. And I just, it's my son and I and my older son. I feel like we're both drowning. But as we go down, we're trying to push the other one back up to take a breath. And it didn't have to be this way. It just didn't have to be this way. Our family didn't have to be get it. You know, we just, everybody talks about it's 0.1 whatever percent was 40% of my family that's gone. Now, things like this are difficult to hear, but I really feel like it's important that we don't look away. And we force ourselves to acknowledge what's happening, you know, try not to be ignorant. Try to appreciate what these nurses and doctors are doing. Something that a lot of us don't have the courage or willpower to do. I know I couldn't do that. Like it takes someone of a certain, I don't know. I don't even know what to say, like willpower and strength to be able to do what they're doing to put up with what they're putting up with. It's just, it's awful. Now, the final video is from the nurse from this viral photo. He kind of explains what happened. Again, really, really troubling to hear this. What he says hits close to home for me in particular and I'll explain why. As I'm going inside my COVID unit, I see that this elderly patient is out of his bed and trying to get out of the room and he's crying. So I get close to him and I tell him, why are you crying? And the man says, I want to be with my wife. So, you know, I just grabbed him, I hold him. I did not know that I was being photographed at the time. And, you know, he was just crying and eventually he felt better and he stopped crying. So I mean, when I see this, when I see what they're saying, I've kind of always had this expectation that nurses and doctors at some point probably become desensitized because you see so much pain and suffering that there has to be some like mechanism psychologically that you use to tune out because you truly like, I don't know, internalized all of the suffering that you saw on a daily basis. Like it would wreck you as a human being, but this shows you that these folks, they haven't lost their empathy for human beings. So my expectation of nurses and doctors has kind of been shattered because I kind of, I think conveniently put it out of my mind what they're going through and think, well, you know, by now they're desensitized. So it's probably not as bad for them as we would expect it as someone who's not dealing with that. But no, it really is bad. And the reason why this hits close to home for me is because like I lost my dad this year and to think that, you know, if he was in this situation where he got COVID and where he died alone, I think of how much worse an already painful situation would have been and the long-term care facility that my dad was staying at before he died. There's a massive outbreak of COVID-19 there and I'm thinking through like all of the patients who I saw and interacted with when I would go to visit my dad and who were so friendly and they're suffering right now. And if they're sick, how sick are they? Are they able to see their loved ones? And I know the answer is no. And it's so much devastation that like these videos, it really hit close to home. I just, you know, I want to be optimistic and think that we see the light at the end of the tunnel. The vaccine is on its way. The Calvary has arrived. But at the same time, it's a really long road ahead. So I share this not because I want to make you depressed, even though it is undoubtedly depressing, but I think it really, really is important that we force ourselves to not look away if we're able to. Because I don't want to be ignorant. I don't want to just like put this out of my mind and, you know, think they've got this. Like these are human beings who are seeing so much suffering and there's a lot of people suffering right now. And it's just like I can't be ignorant. I feel like I'm obligated to shed light on their experiences. So people are maybe a little bit more inclined to take it seriously. And we don't know how much worse this virus is going to get. We're seeing hospitals reach capacity and, you know, makeshift morgues being built in California. You know, even if COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic sometime in 2021, we'll be dealing with this like the long time repercussions psychologically and economically for years, possibly decades to come.