[imagesource: Heroes of Groote Schuur / Facebook]

“Jissus hey bru, I can’t believe I have to wear a mask when I leave the house.”

“I know, china, what a las, hey, bru?!”

This conversation has played out untold times across Cape Town, and South Africa, over the past few weeks and months, and some people continue to see the simple act of wearing a face mask as some kind of government tyranny.

People are actually physically fighting in public because they refuse to wear face masks – recent incidents we covered here and here.

Meanwhile, at hospitals like Groote Schuur, healthcare workers on the frontline are working overtime and battling emotional fatigue in a province where the pandemic has spiralled out of control.

IOL covers the experiences of Verna Collins and Judith Parenzee (pictured above), stationed in the C27 Respiratory ICU, regarding working 12-hour shifts and the mental toll that takes on those working at the facility:

While the long hours were emotionally draining, they said there was not much time to make connections with patients and families were not involved.

“We used to have six beds in here, now we’re sitting with 18 beds in the unit that I’m currently working in. We’ve only had one patient that’s actually left.

“We’ve been admitting constantly. It just goes on and on and on. The thing that I can’t handle the most is the families not being involved with the patients, especially if they are at their end. How do you communicate that?”

Collins and Parenzee were speaking as part of Groote Schuur Hospital Facility Board’s ‘Heroes of Groote Schuur’ project on Facebook.

You can see that full post here, but these are the powerful final few lines:

“This place steals a lot away from you. We are emotionally drained. I’m emotionally drained from yesterday and now I have to face today. We are full full full. I don’t know where all the new patients are going to go.

This morning I asked the doctor, ‘Is there ever going to be a time when you guys decide what is the criteria for patients to come to ICU, and who’s going to make that decision’, and he said, ‘All we can do is try’.”

The Heroes of Groote Schuur’s most recent post is from Wednesday, announcing “the passing of two beloved Nursing colleagues: Sr Eva Isaacs, who worked in G5, and Sr Patricia Coetzee, who worked in C26 ICU”.

It’s been so jarring to watch people on social media push back against the advice coming from the medical community, with the latest round of nonsense relating to face masks causing carbon dioxide poisoning, or hypoxia

Newsflash – no, it will not. See that garbage debunked here, here, and here.

Over in the US, the biggest snowflake of all refuses to wear a mask, and a complete leadership void has seen a resurgence in numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases.

In fact, cases rose across the US by at least 39 818 yesterday, which is the largest one-day increase yet.

There are countless tales of US healthcare workers imploring their fellow citizens to exercise caution, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better article than this one by Anthony Almojera, a New York City paramedic.

You should read his Washington Post article in full, but here are some excerpts:

We just had 20,000-some people die in this city, and already the crowds are lining back up outside restaurants and jamming into bars. This virus is still out there….

I’ve been on the scene at more than 200 of these deaths — trying to revive people, consoling their families — but you can’t even be bothered to stay six feet apart and wear a mask, because why? You’re a tough guy? It makes you look weak? You’d rather ignore the whole thing and pretend you’re invincible?

Image: Demetrius Freeman for The Washington Post

Some of us can’t stop thinking about it. I woke up this morning to about 60 new text messages from paramedics who are barely holding it together. Some are still sick with the virus. At one point we had 25 percent of EMTs in the city out sick. Others are living in their cars so they don’t risk bringing it home to their families. They’re depressed. They’re emotionally exhausted. They’re drinking too much. They’re lashing out at their kids. They’re having night terrors and panic attacks and all kinds of outbursts…

I’ve been in therapy for 17 years, and lately what keeps coming up is that reservoir of hope. It’s starting to feel more and more empty. Our call volume has been down for the last month, but I’m worried it won’t stay there. I don’t have that much faith in what we are anymore. America is supposed to be the best, right? So why aren’t we united at all? Why aren’t we taking care of each other? The virus is hanging around, waiting for us to make more mistakes, and I’m afraid that we will.