I remember going to the emergency room in 1991 after my eye hurt in the United States. The doctor who treated me at the time was, incidentally, a Korean. I was treated by a Korean doctor in the United States. It would be said that there are many Korean doctors in the United States.

About 1.1 million doctors are active in the United States. White is the most prevalent. According to AAMC's 2018 survey, 56% of all physicians are white. Not surprising results. Because it is America, white people are the most likely. Next, Asians accounted for 17%, and the second highest number of doctors after whites. It is not known exactly how many Koreans are among Asian medical staff, but it is expected to be small. For reference, Hispanics are the third largest after Asians.

However, there has been a significant increase in Asian medical staff who have been confronted while working in the United States. Patients who swear, patients who spit, and even patients who hit. Even in hospital emergency rooms in our country, cursing and assault often occur to medical staff, but the situation in the United States is slightly different.

Dr. Lina Wen (Chinese), a doctor working in the emergency room of a large hospital in New York, is shocking. During the lectures related to Corona 19, which was conducted against the general public, people suddenly started to swear, "We die because of you," "Bat-eaters!", "What do you explain after making this!" Go back!" I explained the experience that the lecture was difficult to hear from my back. Another patient said that the doctor refused medical treatment because he was Asian and spit on the doctor's face.

Will only Chinese doctors suffer this kind of condemnation? It's not like that.


Since the spread of corona from China, Asian medical staff including Chinese have suffered discrimination and violence. The article posted on the Washington Post last month is even more shocking.

A corona19 suspect patient suddenly began asking a doctor (from the Philippines) while undergoing treatment. "When and where did you study at?", "Isn't it difficult to study?" Then he asked me where he last came from. The doctor questioned the question and asked the patient what it meant, and said, "I want to know which country you are from." When he said he was from the Philippines, the patient said: "You made us (the United States) like this" (corona 19 spread claim). A doctor from the Philippines said he was shocked and said that his medical treatment was difficult for a while.

Something like this happened. Indonesian Hanky ​​Rim ran to help a Corona 19 patient who came in a hurry while working in a hospital emergency room in Los Angeles, but the patient said he was deliberately coughing toward Rim's face and left the emergency room for one reason. He has been a doctor in the United States for 10 years, but says this is the first time.

Since the outbreak of Corona19, healthcare workers in the United States have been taking care of patients in difficult conditions day by day. In particular, Asian medical workers are fighting racism as well as Corona19.

An Asian real-time organization, "Asia Pacific Policy Planning Committee" (A3PCON), conducted a two-month real-time survey since March to show at a glance how serious crimes against Asians have been. 18484 cases were reported. 70% had the most verbal abuse such as abusive language, slander, etc. The damages of the medical staffs listed above were included in this study, and spit spitting was also found to be 6.6%.Racism against Asian medical staff in hospitals hate crimes are separate statistics magazines but after generating a corona incident was a hate crime against Asian looks would reduce the did.

you say that active Asian doctors in the US are struggling with two 'enemies' of.

corona 19 and racist .

remain in the memories of the last words of a doctor from the Philippines.

"we're not a bad person. They are all the same person, with only different skin color. We must all hold hands and fight Corona 19."

(Photo = Getty Images Korea)