‘I Have the Skills, I Have the Training.’ How Refugee Doctors Are Helping the U.S. Fight COVID-19 Even Without a Medical License

The refugees’ language skills and diverse cultural background are also an asset for a testing program directed at underserved communities and communities of color. At one newly opened testing site in Atlanta, CORE was able to provide not just medical expertise, but interpretation in 13 different languages, including Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Kiswahili, Somali and Tigrinya. “To work with these new Americans who have been resettled with the IRC is gratifying,” says CORE Co-Founder and CEO Ann Lee. “CORE appreciates these dedicated volunteers, who enable us to scale and provide free COVID-19 testing to vulnerable communities throughout the United States.”

Both the IRC and WES hope that the database and the partnership with CORE will lead to greater opportunities for immigrant health professionals down the line, as well as a more streamlined process for getting them into the U.S. medical system. “To the extent that we can turn the situation into something that can meaningfully impact those 165,000 people’s lives while improving access to health care, that would be a positive outcome,” says the WES’ Esposito. “We know that there are urgent needs for licensed health care staff and there are also needs to fill other public health roles,” she says, noting a growing need for contact tracers within the U.S. “These are roles where immigrants and refugees can really contribute. There are roles where you don’t need to change policy to make sure that people are going where they are needed.”

Although Al-Sarray is confident that eventually he will make it as a doctor in the U.S., he is thrilled to be playing a role in the pandemic response now, no matter how small. Before starting his training program as a safety officer for CORE, Al-Sarray boosted his infectious disease knowledge and personal protection equipment skills by watching instructional videos from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Within a few hours of starting work at Dodger Stadium in late May, he was already adjusting the test-handling protocols to help minimize the risk of contagion. By the end of his first day, he was giddy with a sense of accomplishment.

“Now that I am in the front lines, I am even more excited because I am seeing first-hand the amount of people that we are helping,” he says. “Being a part of such a large testing site really makes you feel like you’re contributing to the response. I feel like I am making a difference.”

—With reporting from Carlo Barrera/Los Angeles