Pandemic imperiled non-English speakers more than others
By Martha Bebinger, WBUR
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Interpreter Ana Maria Rios-Velez demonstrates the screening app at the front entrance of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. It has a multilingual function to better communicate with non-English-speaking patients and staffers. (Jesse Costa/WBUR/KHN/TNS)
BOSTON — In March 2020, just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, the incident command center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston was scrambling to understand this deadly new disease. It appeared to be killing more Black and brown patients than whites. For Latinos, there was an additional warning sign: language.
Patients who didn’t speak much, or any, English had a 35% greater chance of death.