22 months into the pandemic, healthcare worker burnout is real

We’re now 22 months into a pandemic that feels like it will never end. In December 2020, the FDA made vaccines available that can prevent the vast majority of COVID-19-related deaths. As Dr. Henry Miller, founding member of the FDA’s Biotechnology Office, and I recently wrote, a variety of COVID-19 treatments, including antivirals and vaccines, provide “a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Yet healthcare workers have described the fourth wave of the pandemic as a “never-ending nightmare.” Overcrowded ICUs, staff shortages, harassment, and violence against healthcare workers have intensified healthcare worker burnout—which was already a problem before the pandemic, but is getting worse as the pandemic continues. A well-recognized problem, medical burnout is “a long-term stress...