As early as last week people around the world clapped, cheered, banged pots and pans and waved flags, creating a deafening din of support for the healthcare workers fighting to beat back the coronavirus pandemic. State leaders and celebrities alike shared videos of people cheering on nurses and doctors from their balconies and adding their messages of support and gratitude to the hard work of these professionals.
But this show of support falls short of the harsh treatment faced by medical professionals who are facing eviction and abuse for their close contact with coronavirus patients. Reports from around the world are arising that hospital workers are having to deal with discriminatory and dangerous behavior by landlords, neighbors and police personnel. Doctors in India, mainly, are coming forward to give testimonies of harassment, with one female doctor in Delhi being physically and sexually assaulted on her way to work because the officers who stopped her did not believe in her credentials despite her having proof. To add insult to the injury, the doctor was forced by the police and higher officials at her workplace to retract her report. In another report, a nurse was hospitalized after a patient beat her up for not serving him his tea on time. The patient had been abroad and was only hospitalized for breaking home-quarantine rules.
The Indian Health Ministry responded with an order that landlords will be punished for discriminating against doctors during the coronavirus pandemic. But some states, in an attempt to control public confinement, introduced laws that gave immense power to authorities to maintain order without reproach. Laws such as these, born during colonial times, greatly hamper the democratic process and are currently causing more harm than good by affecting doctors, our best line of defense against the coronavirus spread.
We need to collectively understand that treating medical professionals this way and creating further social divisiveness will benefit no one in the long run. If we are confused about how to show solidarity, it is more useful to obey the containment and self-isolation laws and speak up for the mistreatment of medical professionals so states are forced to take action. That will encourage more doctors to keep fighting for us rather than a few minutes of clapping and cheering every day.
For more on this, read:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nishitajha/coronavirus-india-doctors-nurses
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/india-coronavirus-heroes-attack-200327070916157.html
By Tanzia Haq
