IT IS SOMETIMES described as the first military campaign fought entirely by air forces. The Battle of Britain during World War II saw the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm defending the United Kingdom from attacks by Germany’s Luftwaffe. The fiery summer of 1940 wrenched out these words from British prime minister Winston Churchill: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much been owed by so many to so few.”

Churchill was speaking in the House of Commons, paying tribute to English fighter pilots and bomber crews. Looking back at 2020 and 2021, I felt those words would be apt to honour health care workers, both in India and across the world. So many of us owe so much to those few in white, and in pastel blue and green.

Churchill’s famous speech came to be known as “The Few”, and from then on, British airmen (from the Battle of Britain) came to be known as The Few. Covid took so much from us, but gave us Our Few. In many ways, this was our World War. Very few countries remained untouched by the spiky red ball. Interestingly, Tonga saw its first Covid case only in October!

This issue is THE WEEK’s annual special on India’s best hospitals. It is accompanied by THE WEEK-Hansa Research Best Hospitals Survey 2021. We have gone to as many cities as our budget allows to give our readers a pan-India picture of quality health care institutions.

In the opening story, Dr Jame Abraham, interim chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Cancer Center, outlines the cost paid by doctors during the pandemic. Doctors paid in stress, deteriorating mental health and suicides. Abraham leads with the touching story of emergency room physician Dr Lorna M. Breen, and how her death spurred her family to address burnout and mental health issues in medical professionals. I was deeply moved when I reached the part where Abraham writes about him talking to his family about the possibility of him dying.

In another article, Senior Correspondent Mini P. Thomas delves deep into the life of the forgotten angels, India’s nurses. From deaths in the family to miscarriages, poor pay and long hours, these gritty women and men have had to put up with a lot.

But, amidst all the gloom, Covid has also revolutionised health care, and that is the focus of Senior Correspondent Pooja Biraia Jaiswal’s article. The focus has been on digitising records and interactions, reducing paperwork and providing remote care. The hospitals THE WEEK spoke to said that many of the measures introduced during the pandemic were here to stay.

As always, the issue offers much more than the cover story, like taking a look at actor R. Madhavan’s newest OTT offering. And, what former colleagues and wards think of Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid’s new avatar as national cricket coach.

Special Correspondent Nachiket Kelkar writes about the boom in the housing market. I think the pandemic has forced more and more people to look closer at their families and what they already have. I heard many young professionals say, ‘This is the longest I have been with my parents since my Plus Two days.’

So, Covid did touch people in different ways, did it not?