In 2020, Dr. David Yang, who is now a fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, experienced an instance of COVID-19-related racism. While soon thereafter it would become clear that the emergence of COVID-19 had brought with it an increase in anti-Asian racism throughout the United States, at the time Yang wondered whether what he had experienced was a standalone instance or an example of something more widespread.
In most cases students reported experiences of racism, such as accusations by patients that they or their colleagues had COVID-19 because they were Asian and an attending physician who joked that a Pakistani American medical student was associated with the Taliban. "The students described themselves as not being able to work or focus, unable to even think about medicine because of these constant racist experiences that kept appearing during their training," said Yang."I know from my own experience that this type of environment can lead to a lot of mental health problems, burnout, and, at the very worst, suicide attempts and deaths by suicide.
Yang notes that this study focuses on the Asian American population and that addressing these challenges should not be at the expense of other underrepresented communities.