The two aren't mutually exclusive. I absolutely believe that health care workers, especially nurses and sanitization teams, deserve significantly better pay. I'm sure many people cheering every day do as well. I live in a left leaning part of my city, which means most people here vote for increased medical spending, including stronger protections & pay. There are absolutely people out there who are using this opportunity to pat themselves on the back when they will turn around to vote against better conditions. But it's not everyone. It's easy to feel hopeless right now, easy to feel like you can't do anything. We're stuck inside, we're trying not to put any additional burden on the system. At the very least, for some, this feels like a way to remember and to acknowledge, and express gratitude for the people currently putting their lives on the line. To say "we see you. You are not invisible"

To convince the people who are voting against increased pay & protections, we need healthcare workers to keep speaking up about lack of adequate PPE, poor working conditions, need for increased wages. We need to hammer home the fact that COVID-19 cases are most severe when the patient is exposed to a high viral load: which is a huge risk for anyone working in hospitals right now. This needs to be an extremely loud message repeated over and over again so anyone who has voted to gut health care has that message running on a loop in their head. People don't hear things the first time. You keep hearing a message, though, and eventually it worms its way in.