Asian American medical workers across the United States report an increase in racial harassment as they risk their own well being to care for COVID-19 patients, according to The Washington Post.
Although Asian Americans are 6% of the U.S. population, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports they make up 18% of physicians and 10% nurse practitioners in America.
And these professionals, many of whom have been practicing for years, have reported that they experience harassment and discrimination at an unprecedented rate.
Their experiences vary. Some reported that patients refuse to be treated by them. Others, like Lucy Li, an anesthesiology resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, experience verbal intimidation while simply going to work to a highly vulnerable environment.
“I’m risking my own personal health, and then to be vilified just because of what I look like,” Li told The Post. “I try not to think about that possibility when I’m at work taking care of patients. But it’s always there, at the very back of my mind.”
The FBI published a statement in late March, predicting a surge of hate crimes against Chinese Americans and Asian Americans. Since then, an increased rate of hate crimes and racial harassment continue to be reported.
Some Asian American doctors responded by creating a social media campaign to combat racism during the pandemic. Featured doctors recorded themselves holding signs which stated comments told to them, such as “go back to China” and “it’s a Chinese virus.”
Nurse practitioner Hengky Lim told The Post that in March, he approached a patient who had a fever and a cough in the ER to show him how to put on a mask. The patient yelled at him and coughed in his face, shouting the coronavirus came from him. The patient refused treatment then left the facility.
The mental and emotional repercussions of the harassment can be profound to healthcare workers who already experience heightened stress due to the daily proximity to the virus. This may, in turn, detract from their vital work of treating and preventing the further spread of the virus.
Lim said many of his Asian colleagues at his Los Angeles medical facility reported similar treatments. Lim told The Post that due to the constant harassment, he even considered quitting.
“Everybody is scared. I’m putting myself out there only to be treated this way. It’s very disheartening,” he said. “We’re not sick. You’re the one who is sick, which is why you are here. And you are exposing us as the health-care provider taking care of you, and we are treated as though we are the ones carrying the coronavirus.”
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