24 November 2020 CNN: Nearly a third of the nurses who’ve died of coronavirus in the US are Filipino, even though Filipino nurses make up just 4% of the nursing population nationwide.A recent report from the largest nurses’ union in the country revealed the disproportionate number of deaths.
It’s a jarring statistic researchers are working to understand and a tragedy families across the US and around the world are living with every day.
Jhulan Banago feels it when he visits his mom’s grave site every week and when he keeps putting out a plate of food for her at the dinner table every night.
Tiffany Olega felt it when she walked through the gates of Disneyland and collapsed to the ground, crying as she set foot in one of her mom’s favorite places for the first time after her death.
Jollene Levid feels it every morning, when she combs through health-care workers’ obituaries and keeps finding Filipino names. She sees her family in their faces — so many senseless deaths.
“People always talk about it as numbers, but then when so many of the folks you know have died, and it wasn’t because they weren’t wearing a mask, it wasn’t because they decided to eat at a restaurant. They were literally trying to keep someone alive and they caught it,” Levid says. [Read More]