I said to DH when the clapping started "oh dear! Every time the great british public put anyone on a pedistal it wont be long before they find a way to pull them down off it with a vigorous bang"
And the backlash didnt take long.
It was never the nurses or doctors claiming to be "heros" in the first place. The public are irrationally angry now if they dare to not live up to the title and act human.
They are damned if they do damned if they dont.
Staff have been abused for turning away donations as inappropriate or not needed, if staff dont show themselves "enjoying" their donations, there is anger.
If they do show themselves enjoying themselves there is anger.....
There is anger if peoples HCP professionals dont come to the door to be clapped at, then there is anger if they DO go out after/before shifts with their teams.
And FYI during the war places like the burns/plastics hospitals held dances on the wards and nurses were the patients dates! It wasnt all stoic then!
Flash mob type dances are always IMO cringy
But the public is being so fickle and nasty at the moment. Nobody is your "hero". If you want impossibly perfect dieties to worship take up praying. People are going to work to pay their bills. Most hope to do a good job in the process. NHS staff didnt start the claps or the rainbows. People wanted to see their "heros" on SM etc and now suddenly they dont!
The distasteful part is the public who want NHS staff to be something theyre not, then villify them when they give the public what they seemed to want a week ago.