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Study: Nurses, People Of Color And NY/NJ Healthcare Workers Disproportionately Died From COVID-19

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Patrick Hauf Contributor
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Nurses have died from COVID-19 at more than twice the rate of any other medical profession, a new study shows. 

The preliminary study, led by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News, analyzes the 1,079 healthcare workers who have died in the US of COVID-19, finding that of the 177 workers currently profiled, 68 are nurses. The next highest death rate in healthcare workers are health care support at 30 and physicians at 21. The numbers continued to be updated on The Guardian’s website. (RELATED: Trump Strikes Deal To Secure 150 Million COVID-19 Rapid Tests For Schools And Nursing Homes)

TOPSHOT - Protective masks bearing the names of medical staffers and nurses are pictured pinned to a wall on April 2, 2020 at the operative field hospital for coronavirus patients, financed by US evangelical Christian disaster relief NGO Samaritans Purse, outside the Cremona hospital, Lombardy. - Fully operational, the structure consist of 15 tents, 60 beds, 8 of which in intensive care. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)

(Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)

Nurses are believed to spend the most time with COVID-19 patients at hospitals. At the height of the pandemic, nurses expressed concerns over shortages of masks and an inability to take sick leave when contracting the coronavirus, Business Insider reported

The Guardian/KHN study also shows a disproportionate number of victims being people of color. New Jersey and New York, the states with the two highest COVID-19 death totals, consist of about 40 percent of the study’s analyzed deaths.