As the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched on, the American health care system has depended on the tireless efforts of nurses to care for the ill, tend to the dying, and stop the illness from seeping outside hospital doors. But despite all of these nurses’ dedication, they themselves have been let down—not only by state and local governments, but by the health care system as a whole, says Bonnie Castillo, a registered nurse and executive director of National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association.