Native American Nations are even more vulnerable to COVID-19

Thursday, April 9, 2020 - 16:10 in Health & Medicine

A high prevalence of chronic conditions and a lack of resources put American Indian nations at high risk of being hit hard by COVID-19. (U.S. Air Force photo/John Van Winkle/)Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, American Indian Nations have been closing their communities and taking steps to protect their members. Community health clinics have been preparing for a potential onslaught of cases and girding themselves for the onslaught of an epidemic that, according to The Washington Post, is likely to hit them harder than the rest of the country. The hardest-hit Nation currently is the Navajo Nation, which, as of April 7, reported 426 confirmed positive cases and 17 deaths. The Nation is imposing a weekend-long curfew for everyone who has not been deemed essential in an attempt to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. “This is a really scary perfect storm for Indigenous populations because of...

Read the whole article on PopSci

More from PopSci

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net