Niagara's paramedics deserve recognition as Pandemic Heroes, says retired paramedic educator Rick Chandler.

In nominating the region's paramedics, he noted that every day they respond to calls that involve considerable risk and exposure to COVID-19.

On a typical 12-hour shift, a paramedic might enter private homes, businesses, long-term care homes, hospital emergency departments and public venues where people do not always practise social distancing, masking, or any of the things that the government outlines in its COVID policies, Chandler says. 

Who are the heroes? Everybody who works as a front-line caregiver to those who are exposed or infected with COVID-19 are heroes, he says. 

But perhaps the most heroic are the paramedics, doing their job without complaint or recognition, Chandler says. Not one individual, but all of them are heroes.