Elementos para comprender la discriminación y agresiones en contra de personal sanitario durante la pandemia de COVID-19 / Elements to understand acts of aggression and discrimination towards the healthcare personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic

Resumen A raíz de la pandemia de COVID-19 provocada por el SARS-CoV 2, en tan solo seis meses de su existencia se han adoptado distintas medidas de protección y atención a la población mundial. Los trabajadores de la salud han realizado grandes esfuerzos para combatir la enfermedad a nivel hospitalario. De forma paradójica, se han identificado actos de discriminación y agresión en contra del personal sanitario, que incluyen la negación de servicios, amenazas, daño físico y patrimonial, principalmente. El propósito de este trabajo es describir algunos elementos que permitan comprender el comportamiento social de discriminación que sufren los trabajadores sanitarios. Se describe el estado de la salud mental en la población general y del personal intrahospitalario durante la pandemia, así como los antecedentes de agresiones al personal de salud previos a esta condición, que permiten tener un panorama general desde distintas perspectivas, con el fin de establecer lineamientos generales útiles para su prevención.

Abstract Within six months only of its existence as result of the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 caused by the SARSCoV2, various safety measures have been applied in order to offer both protection and attention to the worldwide population. Healthcare professionals have been making great efforts to fight the disease on a hospital care level but paradoxically, acts of aggressive discrimination have been presented towards the health personnel, which mainly include: denying services, threats, and physical damage as well as patrimonial. This paper's purpose is to describe some of the elements that help understand the mass social discriminative behaviour showing up towards healthcare workers. Healthcare personnel and general population's mental health states during this pandemic are both described, as well as background checks of aggression towards healthcare workers predating the present pandemic, allowing a bigger picture to be examined, with the intention of establishing new general guidelines to prevent future acts of discrimination.