Atlanta VA physician assistant writes song for ‘Everyday Heroes’ of coronavirus pandemic

In the months since the coronavirus pandemic emerged, various odes to people on the front lines of the crisis have popped up in and around the city.

One healthcare worker at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center decided to use his songwriting skills to celebrate those he’s deemed “Everyday Heroes.”

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Joseph Handley, a physician assistant at the Decatur veterans hospital, told 11Alive that although he works in outpatient care, he walks by the COVID-19 ICU every day. It's there that a sign stands with an ode to the medical workers.

“Now that we are few months into this COVID scare — the little sign out front that says ‘Heroes Work Here’ is tattered and the helium balloons this morning at a screening station were half-inflated, hanging strangely droopy,” he wrote to the news station. “I love a quote, stolen from the book ‘Steal Like an Artist’ (originally from Andre Gide) — ‘Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.’”

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Handley enlisted his friend, singer-songwriter, Steve Collom, to co-write and sing the tune called “Everyday Heroes.” According to the physician assistant, it’s a “song of gratitude for those who heroically serve every day.”

The lyrics describe the experiences of medical professionals who work with little sleep to meet the needs of people affected by the pandemic.

“The world’s a better place, a better place because of you,” the song goes.

Stream the song here or listen below.