As seen in TIME:
EMS Week, which takes place in 2020 from May 17-23, is an annual time to recognize the life-saving efforts of emergency medical services personnel. While celebratory events won’t take place in person this year, EMS personnel are getting more recognition than usual: even before EMS week, virtually and during daily cheers for healthcare workers, they are widely hailed as heroes on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But though sick people have always needed someone to help get them to medical attention, the modern American EMS field is only about five decades old — and can be traced to what one scholarly report called a “neglected epidemic.”