Best way to help Fresno’s health-care workers in fight against COVID? Get vaccinated

Our hospitals are haunted, not by ghosts or vampires or boogeymen, but by something invisible, unyielding and far more deadly: COVID-19. It is not just the disease, but the fear it causes, the hopelessness it spreads and the death and despair it leaves behind.

Nurses continue to care for others, even when there is no hand reaching out to them. Cooks and tray assistants continue to prepare nutritious meals for patients and staff, sometimes working double shifts and missing dinner with their own families. Administrators shape and reshape care processes to meet the crises of the day — and no two days are alike.

Many of us have friends, family members and neighbors working in the health-care industry. Whether they deliver direct patient care or provide non-clinical support, this pandemic has left them with scars, but most don’t show on skin.

They cannot forget the sounds of beleaguered breathing, of the whines and hisses of the ventilators, of loved ones crying on tablet screens, longing to hold their father’s hand as he passes away. They cannot forget the thousands of intubated faces, the crippling fear in their patients’ eyes, the gouges left on their own faces from the protective equipment they must wear each day or risk becoming a patient themselves.

They cannot forget the constant feelings of anxiety, disappointment, frustration and apathy that circulate through their heads. They cannot forget the dull tinge that now sours even the happiest of moments. They cannot forget the hours spent away from their children as they grow up isolated in this uncertain era.

They are tired. They are weary. They are numb. And yet, they continue their healing work, they continue to face the darkness this disease has wrought, they continue to stand up for the health and safety of our community.

It’s time that we come together and join in their fight against COVID-19. In the early months of the pandemic, most of us were sent home and forced to watch the horrific events in places like New York City unfold on our screens. Besides wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings, there was not much we could do to combat the virus.

Now, with FDA-approved vaccines readily available, we can make a true difference for our health-care workers. Vaccinations are our best defense against the spread of COVID-19 and the single most important way we can support the health care workers in our community.

By getting vaccinated, we can reduce the number of serious infections and hospitalizations, both of which will relieve stress on an overtaxed health system. We must preserve the well-being of the Valley’s caregivers as they work to protect us. We must stand by them and reach out our hands. We must show them that we care; that we see their struggles.

As the board chairs of our community’s three largest health-care providers, as citizens of Fresno County, as parents, as children, as friends, and as your neighbors, we implore you to stop watching this pandemic unfold and do something to end it. We urge you to reflect and re-set your thinking and join us, but more importantly, join our health care workers in getting vaccinated against COVID-19.