Family's Coronavirus Sacrifice Catches Obama's Eye

An emergency room doctor in Atlanta has put himself in isolation—in the garage—so he can keep treating coronavirus patients without putting his wife and children at risk. That kind of selflessness sets an example for the rest of us, former President Barack Obama said. Rachel Patzer, an epidemiologist and researcher at Emory University, tweeted her family's story Monday, saying that her husband is an emergency room physician who's treating coronavirus patients. "We just made the difficult decision for him to isolate & move into our garage apartment for the foreseeable future," Patzer said. That leaves her to care for the couple's three young children, one of them a 3-week-old, USA Today reports.

"It pains me to wonder how many weeks will go by that he won’t get to hold our new baby or see our older kids," she said. "This is one example of the sacrifice that health care workers are making for our communities." Among the people who agree is Obama. The medical professionals on the pandemic's front lines deserve our gratitude, the former president tweeted. "They're giving everything," he said. "May we all model our own behavior on their selflessness and sacrifice as we help each other through this." (More coronavirus stories.)