Covid-19 continues to claim the lives of Filipino caregivers

 

Artwork/painting by Iris Boncales-Strauss for @Kanlungan2

With more people getting the coronavirus vaccine and states and cities loosening the health restrictions, people are forgetting that COVID-19 is still claiming lives. It is a mistake to think that the pandemic is over.

As documented by "Lost in the Frontlines," the joint project by The Guardian and Kaiser Permanente, health care workers of Filipino descent are bearing a disproportionate number of deaths due to the coronavirus.

Six health care professionals of Filipino descent who have been added in the first week of April to the coronavirus death toll recorded by Kanlungan.net, the website documenting and honoring Filipino health care workers who have died because of COVID-19.

A report by National Nurses United, the largest nurses' union in the U.S., says that about a third of the nurse deaths in the Unite States are Filipino American nurses.

Their names sound oh, so familiar: Lourdes Pizarro, Melina Lopez, Andrey Caloza, Jesusa Ante, Emma Reyes, Victor Cabrera. They join the scores of other names: Rosary Celaya Castro-Ortega, Milagros Abellera, Debbie Accad, Nick Baltazar and scores of others.

Many of them have Latino-sounding names, but Filipinos know which ones are their fellow kababayan.

It is acknowledged that because of historical consequences, the Philippines is a huge source of health care professionals for the world.

One may argue for and against and whether it was good or bad for the Philippines about the reasons why the country provides so many nurses, doctors and other heath care workers, but one cannot argue their willingness to serve in the medical field and the sacrifices made by the health caregivers from the Philippines.

Let's not forget that they are first and foremost, human beings, not just a statistic or a percentage. 

When this pandemic is beaten, months, maybe years away, let's not let the world forget those who answered the call to care and paid the ultimate sacrifice in 2020-2021.

They are our our mothers and fathers, ninongs and ninangs, kuyas and ates. They are nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, environmental cleaners, dieticians, medical assistants, EMTs, patient transporters, caregivers to the elderly, and too often, the last person our loved ones see before passing away.

EDITOR'S NOTE; Views From the Edge is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to form their own opinion.