Mexico City (CNN) – Dr. Alondra Jovanna Torres was walking her dogs down a quiet street near her home in Guadalajara when the attack occurred. The peaceful morning was shattered when someone yelled something inaudible behind her and then she felt a splash on the side of her face.
Liquid flowed down his left eye and down his neck. The pain quickly followed. The familiar, caustic smell led her to a quick understanding: she had been sprayed with bleach.
“At first, I was in shock,” he told CNN a week later. “Then, I felt scared and angry.”
Her neck burned and her vision blurred. And he noticed something about the medical uniforms he had been wearing. The color began to fade where the chlorine had landed.
He realized that it had become part of a larger story he had been reading about. “I heard about other attacks in newsBut you never think it’s going to happen to you, “he said.
Dozens of attacks
The heroism of health workers amid the pandemic of coronavirus it is applauded daily in cities and towns around the world, but for some in Mexico it is a different story. There have been at least 44 attacks on medical personnel across the country since mid-March, according to data provided to CNN by the National Council of Mexico to Prevent Discrimination.
The types of attacks vary, but include nurses and doctors who are hit in the face and those who throw scorching liquids onto their bodies.
Authorities say the attacks are likely motivated by rumors that medical personnel are responsible for spreading the virus throughout Mexico. Several doctors and nurses told CNN that they had been harassed on their social media accounts on charges of spreading the disease.
“These attacks show a lack of education and culture, as well as people’s ignorance,” said Dr. Patricia Maldonado, a doctor who works at a hospital designated to treat patients with covid-19 in Guadalajara.
As of Wednesday, Mexico had confirmed 10,544 cases of coronavirus infection and almost 1,000 deaths, according to government data.
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“It is deeply outrageous that medical personnel are under attack,” said Undersecretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell, the main person responsible for the response to the coronavirus in Mexico. “It is alarming that there are people who channel very basic emotions such as fear and anger towards the personnel who protect them.”
Fabiana Maribel Zepeda Arias, head of nursing for Mexico’s public health system, told reporters this week that, given the precautions health workers take when treating patients with covid-19, it was ignorant to suggest that they might have the blame for the increase in the disease in Mexico.
“It pains me to talk about this,” she said at a press conference Monday, her eyes filling with tears. “We are also people, we also have families, and we are leaving them to work in hospitals.”
A medical worker holds a banner at a protest demanding medical supplies for covid-19 patients in Mexico City on April 13.
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‘We are afraid for our lives’
Ligia Kantun, a nurse with more than 40 years of experience in the state of Yucatan, told CNN that she was in a supermarket parking lot when she heard someone scream, “Infected!”
Seconds later, she felt searing liquid on her back, which turned out to be hot coffee.
“The damage was more mental than physical,” he told CNN. “[Mis colegas y yo] We are afraid for our lives, but we have to go to work because we have to save people. “
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CNN spoke to 10 members of the medical staff across Mexico who were attacked or have a colleague who was attacked. Incidents are relatively isolated in a country of nearly 130 million people, with many more examples of people publicly showing their support for health workers. However, every health worker who spoke to CNN said they feared for their personal safety.
Dr. Maldonado told CNN that hospital managers made it mandatory not to wear medical uniforms in public. Therefore, workers travel in street clothes and change only once inside safely.
“I am angry that there is zero empathy and that we are the ones on the front line,” he said. “And they don’t even know it, but we will be the ones to take care of them or their families.”
Beyond the physical attacks, less violent forms of discrimination are occurring, and various health workers tell CNN that their own neighbors have rejected them.
Guadalupe Galicia, a 30-year-old nurse, was working in a Mexico City hospital when she learned in mid-March that she had contracted the virus.
He isolated himself at home and posted about his health on Facebook. But instead of supporting her, neighbors she had known for years began demanding that she leave, threatening her family with violence. They wanted their family to be hospitalized, thinking that they were all infected when only Galicia was sick.
“You feel bad already, sometimes you can’t breathe, and then you see people coming and threatening you,” he said in frustration. Since then, Galicia has recovered from the virus. “I already tested negative and people still yell at me for being on the street.”
Melody Rodriguez, 25, had recently finished a shift at the hospital in the western coastal city of San Francisco in the state of Nayarit where she works, about 15 minutes from her hometown.
When she returned home with a colleague, local residents had set up a makeshift obstacle to prevent her and others from entering their own city. The video from a transmitted cell phone Live on Facebook and seen by CNN it showed the obstruction and people said it could infect everyone.
“The people are angry and concerned, especially concerned about everything,” a heavyset man behind a face mask tells nurses. Off camera, another male voice says that if they enter the city, they will have to stay there.
Rodríguez is now staying at a friend’s house near her hospital.
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Erik Hernández, a 37-year-old nurse from Mexico City took off his uniform when he got home from a recent shift and washed it immediately, determined to follow security protocols.
He left it outside to dry overnight. When he went to look for the clothes in the morning, they were covered in chlorine, completely ruined.
“Just let us do our job”
The ten doctors and nurses told CNN that they take pride in their work and that they chose him to be at the forefront of any pandemic. What they did not count on was the reaction of those whom they had promised to help.
“It is unfair because we see support for medical personnel in other countries,” said Graciela Montaño, a nurse who has worked in Mexico City for decades. “In Spain, they applaud [a los trabajadores de la salud] and they are loved, and here we are violently mistreated and abused. “
Dr. Torres, an ear, nose and throat specialist who was attacked with chlorine, says she now goes to work much more cautious with her surroundings.
For Mexican people, she has a simple plea: “They don’t have to applaud us and nobody needs to give us flowers,” he said. “Just let us do our job without fear of being attacked.”
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