@4d4m Said
While perusing the news, as I often find myself doing, I noticed the following two articles. The first is from
NPR . It is about the Covid virus infection rate on the Navajo Nation. It is higher by percent than anywhere else in the country. The other articl is from
Vox . It details the hospitalization rate for black Americans (30%) as opposed to their population rate of 13%.
The Vox article points out that black people on average don't have access to the level of health care white Americans do and have a higher incidence of pre-existing conditions. Basically more poverty in the black community have contributed to the higher hospitalization rate.
The Navajo Nation has different
health organizations depending on what part of the reservation one lives. They are all good organizations. The Navajo Nation has a very low population per area (persons per square mile), one would think this would help slow the spread of the disease locally. Not all of the regions have access to modern amenities like running water, but would that affect the infection rate?
I’m in New Mexico. The lack of running water and modern amenities is totally one of the contributing factors, if not the primary factor the Navajo nation has been hit so hard. The nation is also as big as some eastern states, without the government resources.
Multigenerational families live together, the young and able go to town to get the water for the day (or week whatever they can carry) then bring that home to the elders, which are statistically medically vulnerable to covid. Meaning high age, high levels of diabetes, high cholesterol, and every other health issue that has plagued the nation since the Diné people were force marched through the desert on the Long Walk to s***ty land in the middle of f***ing nowhere, with Poor land for farming, and s***ty water supply. A water supply that even though rivers run in the area others states “claim it as their own, meaning it’s there but they can’t use it.
So no running water, in a home without electricity. How the f*** do you wash your hands constantly in warm soap and water? In a time where s***ty panicking people hoarded all the hand sanitizer, which is the next best hope if you can’t access water.
Add in the hospitals in that area are an underfunded joke. None are a level one trauma center. I don’t even think it is a level 2 trauma center. Which if I remember means they may or may not have a working Operating Room and surgeons. It may mean they stabilize and helicopter out to ABQ, Phoenix, Tucson, Salty Lake or Denver. They may not even have much of an ICU Department because they are so small. My local hospital, just got
It’s level 2 certification after years of trying, their ICU about 10 rooms, is a small nursing crew of like10ish (for 24/7 operations). Add in the fact the, people in the nearby towns, literally don’t give a f***, about stay to home orders or precautions
The playing field they are starting on, ins revenue the same modern reality we think of. Every aspect of life is fundamentally different