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Yesterday one of my brilliant NHS colleagues was subject to overt coronavirus-related racist abuse in a London street. Sadly the virus of xenophobia can't be controlled by either handwashing or social distancing
My colleague bravely challenged her abusers. I hope I would have been brave enough to do the same if I'd been there, I worry that I wouldn't
The irony is, my colleague is one of many staff who will be working over the coming weeks to support the NHS in what the Prime Minister described as the worst public health crisis for a generation
Despite the talk of Covid-19-inspired altruism, there's a real risk that fear of contagion will incubate the virus of xenophobia
What we do in the NHS has to combat that virus of the mind too. To quote Nye Bevan’s 1952 book “In Place of Fear”...
“Society becomes more wholesome, more serene, and spiritually healthier, if it knows that its citizens have at the back of their consciousness the knowledge that...
... not only themselves, but all their fellows, have access, when ill, to the best that medical skill can provide."
We're all in this together. Wash your hands and don't be racist
https://twitter.com/ShannonDowney/status/1233735672306991105?s=19