Doctors and nurses are spent, and not in a way that a few days off or a round of nightly applause can restore.
![The writer wears PPE at work at a hospital in Seattle [Photo courtesy of Sabreen Akhter]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/sabreen1.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)

Dr Akhter is a pediatric emergency physician in Seattle, Washington.
Doctors and nurses are spent, and not in a way that a few days off or a round of nightly applause can restore.
![The writer wears PPE at work at a hospital in Seattle [Photo courtesy of Sabreen Akhter]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/sabreen1.jpg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)