COVID-19: 2020 was horrendous for health workers – early 2021 was even worse

We are two infectious disease hospital doctors working in the city of Liverpool. Over the past year, we have witnessed first hand the devastating impact of COVID-19 – on us, our families, our colleagues and the people under our care. During the first wave, we wrote about the risk of mental illness and moral injury among healthcare workers. During the second wave, we reported on the realisation of our fears of healthcare worker fatigue and burnout. At the start of the UK’s most recent wave, the most severe and arduous yet, we did not find the time to write. While 2020 was a horrendous year for healthcare workers, the first few months of 2021 were worse. It is clear there have been both national and global failures to respond to the pandemic. These failures require both reckoning and redress.