Between January 2020 to January 2023, 18 healthcare workers were killed and another 147 were injured in incidents related to the global COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings published in Health Security. In addition, 33 workers were kidnapped, and more than 100 other incidents involved damage to facilities. Sadly, workplace violence is common in the healthcare setting, the authors note, and the published study aimed to identify incidents specifically related to the pandemic—such as aggression against workers involved in treatment or prevention of COVID-19—by conducting a manual review of a larger set of violent-incident data in healthcare. Weapons were used in 106 (41.6%) incidents total, and hospital settings were the most common places where attacks occurred (15.3%). The pandemic-related violent incidents occurred in 54 countries and on all continents. Beyond the attacks on workers, 86 health facilities were also damaged, and 28 ambulances were attacked during the study period.
Early fears: The authors found most incidents were reported during the first half of 2020, the earliest days of the pandemic. However, they caution, due to underreporting, the data represents “a minimum estimate of the actual magnitude of violence.”