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Mental and Physical Health of Hispanic Communities
The COVID-19 pandemic has effected everyone in some shape or form, however there are certain groups that have been disproportionately effected by the pandemic. The Hispanic community already faces many challenges in North America and beyond such as lack of access to healthcare and education and they also experience higher rates of poverty compared to other minority groups. So it's no suprise that they have been hit very hard by COVID-19 and have shown to have much higher infection and death rates then should be expected given their population. The challenges that these communities are facing have been largely ignored by the media and we intend to bring attention to the voices that have not been heard in these challenging times.
How are Hispanic communities being affected?
Studies show that across the United States Hispanic communities have an unproportianately higher rate of infection of COVID-19 and higher death rates. States such as New Jersey, where Hispanics make up 30% of cases but are only 19% of the total population, Utah, where Hispanics make up 38% of cases but are only 14% of the total population, and Washington where Hispanics make up 34% of cases but are only 13% of the total population. This is a pattern that can be seen across the United States and is very telling of how Hispanic communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. That's just looking at infection rates, if we look at death rates we see that Hispanics make up 26% of COVID-19 deaths but are only 18% of the total population. I think the numbers speak for themselves.
Why are Hispanic communities being affected this way?
There are many reasons for why Hispanic communities are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19. First and foremost, many Hispanics are frontline workers and have jobs in places like grocery stores, waste management, cleaning and sanitation, and food delivery which puts them at greater risk of coming into contact with people who may have the virus. Secondly, 25% of Hispanic people live in multi-generational households which makes it harder to follow safety precautions and ensure that quarantine and isolation are possible in order to protect older members of the family and those at greater risk. If contracted, COVID-19 can also have a worse effect on Hispanics because of greater rates of underlying illnessess such as hypertension and diabetes compared to non-hispanic white people. Another thing to consider is that there is a lack of reliable information in Spanish regarding COVID-19, making it difficulty for Hispanic communities to know about the best safety practices regarding the virus. Systematic racism plays a big role here as well. Historically Hispanic people have been denied access to proper healthcare and education making them more vulnerable to COVID-19 and other diseases. To make things worse they are also the largest population segment without health insurance coverage in the United States. 34% of the latinx population in the United States are immigrants and many of them are ineligable for medicaid and other government benefits. All of this combines to make an already drastic situation much worse for this minority group and not much is being done to spread awareness or help them in any way.
Social Distancing & Preventing the Spread
What can be done to help?
Much can be done to help these communities. First and foremost they need to be given access to correct and informative information regarding the necessary safety precautions that can be taken to protect against the virus. Secondly we need to ensure that members of these communities have a safe space where they can be allowed to isolate and quarantine if necessary, because this may be very difficulty for many of them to do in their current living situations. And third we need to ensure that they can get easy access to COVID-19 tests and get the proper healthcare that they need if they are infected by the virus. Beyond that it becomes a matter of tackling bigger issues that have persisted for generations. These issues include lack of access to education and healthcare, and higher rates of poverty among Hispanic communities. The government needs to step in and solve these problems as soon as they can. Not only for the safety of Hispanics but for the safety of everyone else in the country. If a certain group of people is being neglected and allowed to suffer from this virus, then there is a much greater risk of the virus spreading and getting harder to control.