Asian medics reel from racist assaults

US healthcare workers of Asian and Pacific Islander descent have been involved in two battles during the COVID-19 pandemic: with the coronavirus itself and racism.

Natty Jumreornvong, a medical student at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in the city, said she has been called by her psychiatry patients a racial slur.

Jumreornvong has treated COVID-19 patients often. But that did not exempt her from the anti-Asian bigotry that has occurred since the coronavirus was first identified. Various research has indicated that coronavirus was likely circulating undetected in other countries for months before hitting Wuhan in late-December 2019.