White coats are the real greats

An Iconic image. Powerful. Strong. Thrilling. Doctors, nurses, health and rescue workers, some in white coats, others with their uniforms, are lined up side by side with the great of the Earth, the heads of state and government, in the “family photo” taken, according to a consolidated tradition, at the beginning of the G20 summit in Rome, the capital of a country first hit by the devastating hurricane of the pandemic. World leaders wanted to pay tribute and recognition to the men and women who fought in the trenches in the war against an unknown and ferocious virus. A war fought with few weapons, confronting the fear, suffering and death of many sick people, trapped in a tangle of pipes, in armored hospitals, places of contagion and an inevitable end for too many, in days and nights without rest , punctuated by ambulance sirens. It is easy to predict that this image will become the symbolic photo of the G20, will make history and will remain in history, perhaps, like the one, very famous, taken in August 1945 in Times Square, New York, published by Life magazine: it portrays a sailor who passionately kisses an unknown nurse, during the spontaneous displays of enthusiasm and joy for the end of the Second World War. But this “historical” shot by doctors, Spallanzani researchers, health workers of the Red Cross, belongs to our time, with its ability to convey a message and a warning: not to forget – as we are perhaps beginning to do – the exceptional effort made in an unprecedented health emergency by so many nameless “heroes” and “heroines” who have helped us in the most terrible and hard part of the crossing in the desert that is not over yet.