AN IRISH doctor has hit back at demonstrators who took part in the anti-mask protests over the weekend.
Dr Elysha Brennan posted a photo online of her face which had been badly bruised by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) for 12 hours straight.
She stressed that it wasn't a big ask for the public to wear face coverings.
"It's day 8/12 and my face is battered from PPE. I have turned off my news alerts because I cannot see one more story about people marching in their thousands to protest against wearing face masks," she wrote in a tweet.
Dr Brennan, who was the Rose of Tralee in 2015, said she took the snap on Monday in the middle of a 12-hour shift after learning about the anti-mask protest which took place in Dublin at the weekend.
On my 8th day in a row of work I went into the bathroom and saw this reflection staring back at me. Took out my phone to take a picture & saw articles popping up about the marches in Dublin over the weekend where thousands were protesting wearing masks... https://t.co/RD4FVI4m80
— elysha brennan (@2015RoseElysha) September 14, 2020
All staff working on the frontline are required to wear air-tight goggles, face masks, full-length gowns and protective gloves while on shifts, which typically last for longer than eight hours.
The young doctor added that all she and her colleagues wanted was for the public to follow the guidelines and listen to the advice of health experts.
"I was so fed up. Healthcare workers are not invincible. Some of us have underlying conditions, but we are still going into work every day putting on a mask to protect ourselves because that is evidence-based medicine," she said.
"We do it for 12 hour shifts, 12 days in a row. All we are asking is that people put on a cloth mask and try and physically distance from each other.
"I feel quite strongly, we don’t need the public to be calling us healthcare heroes. We don't need claps.
"We just need people to listen to the experts and NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team) and the CMO (chief medical officer) and appreciate there is concrete evidence-based medicine behind wearing masks, physically distancing and staying at home when you are unwell."
