The Atlantic
Why Filipino nurses have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic
February 25, 2021
Joyette Jagolino (second from the right) in critical-care nurse training with her class at Saint Paul University in ManilaPhoto courtesy of Joyette Jagolino
At the start of the pandemic, Jollene Levid and her mother, Nora, found themselves glued to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nightly press conferences. In a press conference late last March, Garcetti announced a new milestone: the first health-care worker in Los Angeles County to die of the disease.
“When I heard him say that, I realized that he was talking about Auntie Rosary,” Jollene Levid says, speaking about Rosary Castro-Olega, a 63-year-old nurse who came out of retirement to work in hospitals strained by the pandemic. Castro-Olega’s death helped inspire an online memorial called Kanlungan, which honors the lives of health-care workers of Filipino descent.