We’ve been trying to sound the alarm for years. Violence against healthcare workers has increased at an alarming rate, and now it’s at an all-time high. Nearly half of all nurses in the United States have experienced physical assault on the job, and nearly three-fourths of us are regularly verbally assaulted. Healthcare workers are now diagnosed with clinical PTSD at a similar rate as active-duty military personnel. The pandemic simply exposed and exacerbated that which was slowly and steadily boiling beneath the surface.

And now two more of us are dead, and I’m not sure how else to feel except for scared and angry.