Here I share what it was like for many healthcare staff when Covid hit. I hope that by sharing it we can all understand the reality of what happened during the early years of the pandemic.

Some of us were in a country that responded well and others were stuck facing this relatively unknown respiratory pathogen in a country that failed to respond properly to it. I was in both. For the first few months, I was a frontline medic in Gibraltar - a place that managed the initial pandemic well. I then moved back to the U.K. - a place that managed the pandemic very poorly.

We all suffered trauma. No doubt, for those with an inept government flailing around and/or a healthcare leadership way behind the curve the trauma was greater, the betrayal more profound. Understanding what went wrong and what should have happened helps us move on less encumbered. It’s called a debrief. And it’s about time.

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