Standing up to the Trumptard redneck hicks.
Meet the ICU nurse who silently stood in protest at a rally to reopen Arizona
On her day off from working at a Covid-19 unit in an Arizona hospital, ICU nurse Lauren Leander threw on a pair of clean scrubs and headed to an anti-lockdown protest at the state Capitol.
She was determined to be a voice for her patients through silence.
Leander, a Banner Health nurse of five years, joined an intimate group of healthcare workers on Monday to counter protest at the Capitol, where people gathered to urge the governor to reopen the state.
Standing up straight, her arms crossed and face mask on, Leander stood on the Capitol steps, with a handful of healthcare workers lined up by her side. She said she only spoke if someone encroached on her personal space, despite people raising their voices at her.
"It was heated, people were very fired up about what they had to say," she said. "A lot of the top comments we got were about us being fake nurses, there was a huge majority of them that still believe this virus is fake, that it's a hoax and not real at all. They were convinced that we're fake nurses and that's why we weren't talking."
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has put a
stay-at-home order in place until April 30. Because of this, several different groups of rallied at the Capitol to say the economy has suffered enough and the order needs to be lifted, according to CNN affiliate
KNXV.
ICU nurse Lauren Leander attended protest in support of fellow healthcare works and coronavirus patients.
Leander told CNN she volunteered to work in the hospital's Covid-19 unit full time and has been seeing patients from all over the state for the last month.
"I just hope people see that nurses are not the enemy and we'll take care of them one way or the other," Leander said. "I don't care if you believe in this virus or not or truly what your opinion is of it, if these people show up in my ICU we will take care of them one way or another."