Public health workers, like the data analysts, policy advisors, and researchers who have informed the nation’s pandemic response, are experiencing a burnout crisis. Many of these workers are saying that they were working a “blur of 24-hour shifts” with no overtime and no hazard pay. A CDC survey of public health workers revealed that the prevalence of PTSD was 10-20% higher than the prevalence of the general public and frontline medical workers. One worker said he fears that the field will continue losing people as “They are already burned out and are leaving the workforce in droves.”
See Abdullah Shihipar, The Guardian, September 23, 2021