Sharing this from a friend and I can imagine that a lot of health care professional may be feeling this way, today.
This is so well written by a super smart nurse who wishes to remain anonymous. This maybe one of the best analogies I have ever read.
Imagine that you are a firefighter and there is a massive fire. You throw on your gear and rush into the fire systematically rescuing as many people as possible. Once all the people are out, you secure the perimeter and notify appropriate channels to get evacuations started in at risk communities. There are signs up, borders in place, people standing guard. The president goes on national television warning everyone about how dangerous the fire is and to not go into it. Communities offer raffles, gifts, and incentives to encourage people to stay away from the fire. You stand outside, physically guarding the perimeter and yell repeatedly at people to stop them from walking into the fire, telling them they will die if they go in. The people yell back that they know you are lying to them and they are too smart for that, they aren't sheep. The other people that died were all old and fat so they aren't worried. It breaks your heart because people you thought were your friends don't listen and even some family members don't take your warnings seriously. Even though you were just inside the fire they know much more about the fire than you do. Even though you're a trained professional who just dragged burning bodies out of the fire they know that the fire isn't really that bad. Many of them politely thank you for your service and state they respect your beliefs so will you please respect theirs? So they run past you into the fire. Once they're in the region they pick up pieces of burning wood and toss them into neighboring fields and forests, starting more fires. "Fire is natural!" they scream. Then they start screaming a different scream, yelling for help because they're burning in there and then demand that you run back into the fire yourself to try to save them. You are tired, sweaty, and hot and that fire is getting really big and dangerous, but when you express dismay about having to run back into the fire all of society (including some "friends" and family) shame you for being a selfish person. "You signed up for this, its your job. Now go run and save those people, it was their right to run into the fire and and start more fires and you better respect their rights." Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of people and that is what working in healthcare is right now.