Mexico City
Fear of hospitals: Mexico’s coronavirus crisis is being worsened by a vicious cycle of self-perpetuating fear. Afraid that hospitals have become Covid-19 death wards, many Mexicans are refusing to seek care until they are so sick they are beyond saving, at which point they die within hours of arriving at the hospital.
The result is that nearly 40 percent of patients hospitalized with the virus in Mexico City have died, compared with less than 25 percent of those hospitalized in New York City at the height of the pandemic. Government data shows that thousands of Mexicans are dying at home. “After seeing videos of what happens to people inside hospitals, screw that,” José Eduardo Bailón, who battled a suspected case of Covid-19 at home for 60 days, told The New York Times. “I’d rather stay home and die there.”