Attacks to healthcare professionals in Mexico
COVID-19 Pandemic Diary, 22 May 2020
22 May 2020
While the world thanks and honors healthcare professionals in this difficult and long struggle against the coronavirus, Mexico is faced with an unexpected and difficult situation: assaults and attacks on healthcare professionals across the country.
As reported by the BBC on 18 May, there are several testimonies from professionals who, in full use of their uniforms and identification, are violently attacked in gardens, streets and public transport.
This situation led the country's President, Andrés López Obrador, to publicly condemn these acts and to take measures to protect those who care for the lives of Mexicans, including having to reinforce security measures in hospital perimeters using the military.
Hospitals ask their employees not to circulate with any kind of sign that can link them to healthcare activities to avoid these aggressions.
And it is not just physicians or nurses who face this type of violence, this even happens to hospital cleaning employees just because they consider them as "infected" or "dirty".
Suffering from physical and psychological violence, healthcare professionals are being forbidden to enter their neighborhoods.
According to many testimonies, it is psychological violence that offends and discourages healthcare professionals the most in the face of this struggle. They do not ask for applause, just for respect.
Isabel Leite
ALERT Project Manager in Mexico
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