Washington appoints top Navy surgeon as it's coronavirus czar

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Vice Admiral Raquel C. Bono (Ret.)  was named the State of Washington's COVID-19 czar.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee Monday named retired Navy Vice Admiral Raquel C. Bono to head up the state's fight against COVID-19.

The newly appointed state director for COVID-19 Health System Response Management Washington is getting one of the top surgeons in the Navy with a long career in the medical field. She takes on the task as the governor announced a shelter-in-place mandate on Monday (March 23).

Bono is currently a senior fellow with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. As the former chief executive officer and director for the Defense Health Agency, Bono led a joint, integrated support agency that enabled all branches of the U.S. military medical services to provide health care services to those engaged in combat.

She is the first woman surgeon in the military to hold the rank of vice admiral.

“Vice Admiral Bono will help bolster our existing coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic across our state’s health care system," Inslee said. "She brings an impressive medical background, a long and distinguished military career and a deep understanding of complex medical delivery systems. Her expertise will help us ensure that we can meet the needs of Washingtonians who are sick, or will become ill from COVID-19."

The appointment is effective immediately.

Bono and her brother, now retired Rear Admiral Anatolio B. Cruz III, made history in the US Navy earlier when they became the first and only siblings of Filipino descent to hold flag-officer ranks simultaneously, according to the DHA website.

Bono’s grandfather was a Filipino obstetrician who served in the US Army as a colonel during World War II. Two decades after the war, Bono’s parents migrated to the US and settled in Minnesota, where her father completed his surgical residency and became part of the Navy Reserve, retiring as a captain.

Her brother, retired Rear Admiral Cruz III, served as deputy commander of the US Naval Forces Southern Command and deputy commander, US Fourth Fleet.

"Service to others; service to country. It was ingrained in us by our father and mother in gratitude to their adopted country, the United States,” Bono was quoted as saying in the article.

In her role for Washington state, Bono will advise the Inslee, his staff and state agencies on actions needed to address the capacity and strain across the health care system. She will work closely with acute care facilities, long-term care facilities, clinics, tribal facilities, and the federal government to assess and address the greatest needs. Her role will include work to ensure medical staffing needs are met, as well as develop standard protocols across facilities and coordinate with the state Emergency Operations Center to operationalize statewide efforts.

“I am honored and delighted to join Governor Inslee and the Washington state health care community in their collective leadership and expertise to develop a model of care for all Washingtonians and others during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bono said.

Washington has been hard hit by the coronavirus and recorded the first death in the US  and an outbreak among residents of a nursing home in Kirkland.

As of Monday, the total number of cases in the stateis 2,221,  with 110 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Washington Department of Health.

“We are very pleased to have the expertise and leadership of Vice Admiral Bono in our coordinated efforts between the public health and health care system as we continue to respond to this unprecedented public health crisis,” Secretary of Health John Wiesman said. “Her leadership will enhance our response on behalf of all Washingtonians.”

Bono obtained her medical degree from Texas Tech University and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed a surgical internship and a general surgery residency at Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, and a trauma and critical care fellowship at the Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine in Norfolk.

Bono served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as head of casualty receiving for a fleet hospital in Saudi Arabia. Upon returning, she worked as a surgeon at Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth and as a surgical intensivist and attending surgeon at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Her long medical career includes service as: director of Restorative Care and director of Medical-Surgery Services at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland; career planning officer for the chief of the Medical Corps; executive assistant to the 35th Navy Surgeon General; commanding officer at Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida; and chief of staff and deputy director of Tricare Management Activity of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Affairs.

Bono’s leadership roles include service as deputy director for Medical Resources, chief of Naval Operations, and as command surgeon for the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith in Hawaii.

She has also served as: acting commander for the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical; director of the National Capital Region Medical Directorate of the Defense Health Agency; the 11th Chief, Navy Medical Corps; and director of the Defense Health Agency.

Bono is a diplomat of the American Board of Surgery and also has an Executive MBA from the Carson College of Business at Washington State University.

Her personal decorations include three Defense Superior Service Medals, four Legion of Merit Medals, two Meritorious Service Medals and two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals.

Cambodians, & Vietnamese Americans on edge, fighting protesting deportations.

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Hundreds protested [ossible deportations of Vietnamese Americans in Westminister, Caalif.

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VIETNAMESE AMERICANS rallied Saturday in Orange County's Little Saigon to protest a move by the Trump administration to clear the way for the deportation of Vietnamese American refugees.

“Bao ve gia dinh. Bao ve gia dinh,” protesters repeated, demanding protection against separating families. More than 300,000 Vietnamese Americans and nationals live in Orange County, the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, according to KTLA.  It includes parts of Westminster, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Many of them came into the country in the 1990s as refugees of the Vietnam war.

Xuyen Dong-Matsuda, a mental health worker, urged the crowd of about 100 Saturday in Little Saigon to “fight for those who need our passion and our help.”

The White House is trying to renegotiate an agreement with Vietnam that protects refugees from deportation. A new agreement would enable the U.S. to deport some 8,000 Vietnamese Americans who committed a crime-even for minor offenses that they have already served jail sentences.

“We need to open our hearts and minds to offer others a second chance,” said Lan Nguyen, a filmmaker at the rally. Lan also expressed support for the Cambodian community which is now also living under the same threat.

Meanwhile, three Khmer American men in detention in the state of Washington and awaiting deportation to Cambodia have been freed, according to the International Examiner. 

In Washington state, three members of the so called Washington 7 have been freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

The Northwest Immigrants Right Project (NWIRP), Foster Pepper PLLC, Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together (FIGHT), and the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) and the ad hoc response group called the Khmer Anti-deportation Advocacy Group of Washington (KhAAG) worked to get two of the men freed.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee granted an emergency pardon for  Roeuth An. His mother recalled the shock she felt when he was taken into custody by ICE.

“When he [An] was five, the Khmer Rouge took him away from me, they don’t let you live with your parents anymore, ” said Ms. Lorng Raing, mother of Mr. Roeuth An. “When they [ICE] took him away, all those emotions came rushing back to me,” she told the International Examiner.

After the U.S. bullied Cambodia into accepting deportees, Cambodian officials agreed to accept more deportees from the U.S. Forty-six Cambodian Americans are supposed to be deported Monday (Dec. 17), the largest number of Cambodian deportees in history.

Most of the detained Cambodian Americans set to be deported have committed a crime for which they already served their sentence.

Attorneys have petitioned Gov. Jerry Brown to pardon the Cambodians which would prevent their deportation. The governor in the last 10 months has pardoned seven formerly incarcerated who otherwise would have been deported to Cambodia, drawing the ire of Donald Trump, whose administration has stepped up efforts to deport immigrants with criminal convictions.

In a rare step, the California Supreme Court has blocked one of Brown’s pardon's to a 37-year-old Borey Ai, who killed a woman when he was 14-years old, for which he served a 19-year sentence.

The court gave no reason for the rejection, but earlier noted it only had the authority to do so in the case of an “abuse of power.” Brown’s pardon would have effectively stopped Ai’s deportation to Cambodia, a nation where his mother was born but he has never seen.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

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