Well, I certainly think you're right. Our polls have shown that health care workers are extremely strongly impacted by this and have experienced one of the highest levels of increase of mental distress. I think at the beginning of the pandemic there was a great deal of anxiety generated by the fact that we weren't really ready. There were shortages of various kinds of protective equipment. I think felt they were being put into very dangerous situations. Now that the situation has become more stable and the supplies and that sort of situation are better, I think people are doing better.
We found that people are afraid of becoming ill themselves, but are even more afraid that illness will strike their families. You hear many stories of health care workers who come home and before they come into the house are changing their clothes, putting everything in the wash, and that sort of thing.
Generally speaking, in situations like that people need a work environment that recognizes what they're going through and provides supports and opportunities for counselling and for people to be able to come forward and talk about what's happening to them without fear of reprisals in the workplace. They need a mentally healthy workplace. I think they also need what is now coming—messages of hope and messages of support that will affect their own lives. Most health care workers are very anxious about people who don't maintain social distancing and act in ways that make the illness more common. We see across the country now that the pressure on the health care system and the rates in emergency rooms of serious illness are rising very quickly, and in some cases reaching the breaking point.
Like everybody, I think, health care workers need that message of hope, but they need a supportive workplace and the kind of recognition I think they often get publicly, that they are really appreciated as some of the heroes in this whole enterprise.