“When they started vaccinating us in December of last year, there was a glimmer of hope.”
“We are exhausted; mentally exhausted ”.
The phrase repeats it several times Maria Santomil, a Spanish nurse who works in the Emergency Room at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
Since the first COVID-19 cases appeared in the UK, Santomil has been on the front lines of the battle against a pandemic that has heavily stressed the British Public Health Service (NHS), as well as to many other healthcare systems in the world.
Now, with the appearance of the new variant Omicron —Which forced England to re-impose restrictive measures such as the use of masks or PCR tests for travelers—, the situation has become complicated again in a place where, to date, more than 400 cases of this strain have been reported .
“We live hoping that something good will happen but that end, that light at the end of the tunnel never comes “, affirms María Santomil.
In conversation with BBC Mundo, the nurse addresses part of the difficulties that health personnel are facing today, the frustration they experience day by day when caring for people who, for the most part, do not get vaccinated and the fatigue that many accumulate almost two years after the appearance of the coronavirus.
This is his first-person account.
The beginnings of the pandemic were very difficult.
It was something new, there was no preparation, there was no protective equipment, nothing. People were dying, it was a situation of shock very big, the toilets had a very bad time.
When they began to vaccinate us, in December of last year, there was a glimmer of hope.
They began to say that with the vaccines we would be able to travel, to move, it was like the light at the end of the tunnel. But it really was not so.
Because it is simply something cyclical, which we have already seen in the last year and a half.
There is an improvement, the space of the emergency beds is readjusted, but then the cases increase again, and we have to move everything again.
We have seen that about 80% of people who are in the emergency room with coronavirus, and need respiratory support, is not vaccinated.
Many refuse to believe that they have covid-19. They say, “No, this is pneumonia.”
It strikes me that they are not only young. Rather, many people in their 40s, 50s or 60s who never wanted to get the vaccine and who end up very sick.
Because it is true that the numbers of hospitalizations have dropped. But people who are not vaccinated still get just as bad.
“Sometimes we lose faith in the human race”
The issue of vaccination is something very sensitive, especially because we are very aware and have lived it so closely that I do not know absolutely anyone at the hospital who has not wanted to be vaccinated.
And it is that nobody wants to risk precisely because we have seen what the covid does. And it scares us. Then We find it very unfair, selfish and ignorant people who, without reason, say: ‘No, I don’t want to get vaccinated’.
Everyone is free to think what they want, that there is a conspiracy behind or whatever. But what we have seen is nothing of a conspiracy. There are people here who get seriously ill and die.
Many people tell you that they don’t get vaccinated because they don’t believe in them.
And you have to respect it. But you try to tell him: I understand that you are afraid because it is something very new, but it has been seen in history that there are diseases that were eradicated thanks to vaccines. And they are obviously very well tested.
And then you think: these are people who may not hesitate to eat five McDonald’s hamburgers a week or have been taking the contraceptive pill for 20 years knowing that it has many side effects. But they don’t question that.
Instead this, which is something of public health, they question. That makes me very angry. Because they also want you to give 100% of yourself to save them.
Sometimes we have surreal situations of people who start doing lives on Facebook or videos for TikTok, saying they have covid.
It makes me want to tell them: “What world do you live in?” Many times we lose faith in the human race. We lose faith in common sense.
It is very tiring. There are days when you tolerate it better but others when you don’t.
“We are all bored”
Right now, one of the biggest difficulties we have in the hospital is precisely the people who do not adhere to the recommendations to wear a mask.
I understand that until very recently the government (of Boris Johnson) said that it was not mandatory. But in the hospital we have said from the beginning that they have to take her.
Last week I had to tell at least 20 or 30 people to please put on the mask. And on top of that they asked me: “And why?” But how what why?
There are people who say that it is their right not to wear it. Others who are simply bored of the coronavirus.
And look, we are all bored. I have been wearing a mask 12 hours a day for two years. And I have colleagues who have asthma, respiratory problems, and they do the same. So the fact that the mask overwhelms you is not an excuse.
Or, for example, when we test for coronavirus, many people tell you that they don’t like it, that it is horrible.
And I answer them: we have to do it four times a week so that you are calm and I can come to work to help you.
Some thank you. But those thanks do not have to be given by clapping or saying them.
What we really want is to get vaccinated, that they take care of themselves and that when we ask them to put on the mask, they do so. It is the only thing we are asking for. And it’s not for us, it’s for everyone.
It is frustrating because even if you do the impossible, you adhere to the restrictions, if there are two people who do not, then your work will be worthless.
What we are experiencing now with omicron, only proves that no matter how much some countries or a certain number of people do well, if this is not a global effort, there is no way out.
Nothing can be done and we will continue in this cyclical situation.
“Our patience is running out”
We are health workers but we are also people. We miss our families like everyone else; our plans have changed a lot. We are more tired than anyone, probably.
And our patience is running out. You see it in topics such as, for example, sick leave.
We are having a lot of personnel problems. One, because there are people who get infected or get sick from other things, but also because until now we were pulling a lot of staff, working a lot of overtime.
Because we thought: “We all came out of this together.” But two years later, we are tired, mentally exhausted.
The adrenaline that we had at the beginning, due to this very new disease, is gone.
Before, when they told you that to travel you had to quarantine, you thought: well no, I’ll wait. Now it is different. I have not seen my family for 1 year, I am going to leave even if I have to quarantine. And that affects the staff a lot.
We are psyched that the virus is not going to end. Aware that we will probably have to wear a mask for years; many, many years. Even permanently.
But the problem is the uncertainty, wondering how long this is going to happen. To what extent will it continue to impact people’s lives? Not being able to go to work or not being able to take my child to daycare because I have a fever.
We also want to enjoy life when we are not working. And I think that is the part that health workers are taking the worst.
Because it is exhausting to see that you do not get out of the circle. From that vicious circle in which everything is covid.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
