Coral Olazagasti, MD

As of September, more than 270,000 deaths have been confirmed in Latin American countries due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

As a Latina, I feel deeply impacted when I see reports of hate crimes against ethnic and racial minorities in the news. The recent string of news reports highlighting police brutality and the victimization of black people has caused a great deal of pain in my heart, prompting me to reflect on my own experiences.

In late December, rumors regarding a dangerous virus that originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, China started spreading across the world. At the time, all we knew was that the virus resembled the severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known as SARS, and that it was aggressive and deadly.