The other day, I had one of those encounters that brings reality home.
An acquaintance — let’s call her Suzy — one of the better players in my tennis group, was looking stressed. She said she is a nurse at a major hospital and, therefore, not surprised at the pressures of COVID-19. But she was upset by the threats and actual attacks by anti-vaxxers and others for no other reason than she and her colleagues trying to enforce rules, like mask wearing, to keep them and their patients safe. She is now afraid to leave the hospital in her scrubs!
Since when is it OK to attack nurses for doing their jobs?
Let me speculate. It’s “OK” in a country where a select few, with deep pockets and an unquenchable thirst for power, are willing to use people, especially poor Whites with limited education, to create fear. Through the clever use of disinformation and other means, they have made this population afraid of vaccines, immigrants, Blacks, the government, voting rights, abortion, LGBTQ people, climate scientists, you name it. Using similar methods, they have succeeded in getting the same people worked up enough to actually threaten those who disagree with them, including nurses in scrubs.
What possibly could be the motivation behind this fear mongering? I leave the answer to the reader.
Julia Sperry
Hockessin
