Racism on the frontline: Britain’s Asian healthcare workers

Racist abuse of Asian healthcare workers is reportedly on the rise as they risk their lives in the fight against COVID.

It was just after eating Christmas dinner with her son last year, that Bristol-based care home nurse Carine* started experiencing the worst headache of her life. Carine, 65, who is from the Philippines but has lived in the UK for more than 30 years, cast her mind back to the moment three days prior, when she had learned that a resident she had just been helping wash himself had tested positive for COVID-19. “But you told me he was negative just half an hour ago,” she recalls saying to the duty manager who broke the news to her. Sure enough, Carine – who has worked at the care home since 2019 – went on to test positive herself. Falling ill with a severe case of COVID – an ambulance was called to her home when she started hallucinating from the pain – she was forced to take two months off work.