Hayes is a nurse and a writer.

I am a nurse and a writer, and I help other clinicians write. But lately, many of the brave and brilliant writers who surround me have gone silent. These warriors who clawed their way through COVID, who continue to do difficult things every day, have stopped writing and stopped speaking.

My colleagues are brave to their core, but many are afraid right now.

Their fear is noble: It is the fear of kind hearts who are taught first to do no harm. Their words are not only being held captive by threats against them personally; the threat that their words could attract political backlash -- leading to real harm for their patients, peers, and institutions -- lingers above them.

To be clear, the threats are real: Across the nation, scientists and clinicians have be

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