The Conversation published Healthcare workers are still coming under attack during the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. In the article PI Larissa Fast and project-affiliated researcher Sophie Roborgh describe how violence against healthcare workers is not confined to contexts of armed conflict.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen different forms of aggression inflicted upon healthcare workers across the world. “As well as exposing them, in some cases, to real physical danger it also increases psychological pressure at a time when many are already under a huge amount of stress” the authors argue.
These forms of aggression include intimidation and threats as well as direct physical and verbal assaults. “The virus highlights pre-existing pressures and violence against healthcare workers. In many cases, it has aggravated them. Like the spread of the virus, COVID-19-related violence has proliferated around the globe, so far largely out of sight and unchecked. It is in all our interests that such violence is closely monitored, addressed and – where possible – prevented.”
