Our national health care system, which was broken going into the pandemic, is being broken down even further. Due to the triumvirate of COVID, RSV and the flu, available hospital beds all over Oregon are down to the lowest capacity since the onset of the pandemic. Nationally, health care workers have left the profession in droves due to sickness, burnout and trauma. Suicides among our health care workers have gone up dramatically as well. Health officials in Oregon are practically begging citizens to resume masking in crowded public places due to this critical situation.

Lockdowns are not going to fly, nor are masking mandates, that much is obvious. We all want to get back to whatever reality we perceived as normal before the pandemic, but how many of us are willing to take a close heartfelt look at the toll this has taken on the heroes who have, and are still working in the healthcare system?

I’m not here to suggest what any of us should or should not be doing about this awful reality. Only our conscience can do that.

Neil S. Burton

Eugene