Right now, our health care workers are on the frontlines taking care of COVID-19 patients while our first responders, truck drivers, grocery store employees and many more provide other vital services to our communities. There are a number of Hoosiers putting themselves at risk at their jobs and as they care for our loved ones, friends and neighbors. To these workers, we say thank you.
The frontlines continue to change as high-risk populations undergo extreme challenges, but yet again our health care workers rise to the challenge. While nursing homes and home care agencies for the elderly are seeing the virus spread among patients, staff in these facilities are surrogate families for residents since loved ones are unable to visit. Hospital staff, doctors and nurses are facing this epidemic head on. As many of us are confined to our homes, these Hoosiers are separated from their families, working long hours and providing lifesaving care.
Our local health care professionals are taking care of the most vulnerable and producing rapid test results all across the state. Then there are pharmacy staff, police, firefighters, EMTs, delivery drivers, restaurant workers, truck drivers, teachers, grocery store employees and many others who continue to meet the needs of our towns. Their steadfast commitment ensures we have lifesaving medicine, are safe, fed and continue learning.
At the beginning of the outbreak, there were concerns doctors and medical workers would be faced with a short supply of personal protection equipment they needed to safely treat patients. But in times of crisis, individuals and businesses alike began filling the need. Hoosiers began sewing masks, businesses donated equipment to first responders, residents dropped off extra personal protection equipment to hospitals, and restaurants fed medical staff and emergency service workers. These efforts are paying off, with health care officials reporting our hospitals have enough supplies to resume other medical operations for critical care patients.
Through this pandemic, I hope we all better understand how much we need these essential workers and industries, and the importance of relying on American resources to get us through a crisis.
While Indiana's public health emergency will come to an end, our gratitude for each other should continue. The next time we go into a hospital or store and we encounter someone who helped on the frontlines, remember their sacrifices and thank them.
To our local frontline workers, thank you.
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State Rep. Ron Bacon (R-Chandler) represents House District 75,
which includes portions of Warrick, Pike and Spencer counties.
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