Coronavirus hits Indian Country hard, exposing infrastructure disparities

[G_j]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-hits-indian-country-hard-exposing-infrastructure-disparities-n1186976

Every third day, someone from Dr. Michelle Tom's family navigates their pickup truck for 14 miles over the pothole-pocked dirt roads of the Navajo Nation to a community center. There, for about $95 a week, her family fills their water tank and hauls it back home to the double-wide trailer she shares with seven relatives in northeastern Arizona.

Or at least that's how Tom was getting water before she had to cut off physical contact with her family because of the coronavirus pandemic that has raged across tribal communities. For now, she is living with a co-worker to maintain her distance and prevent spread.

"I haven't hugged anyone in weeks," said Tom, who spends her days treating COVID-19 patients at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center urgent care in Winslow, Arizona, and on the Navajo reservation.

ow, a month after the tribe's first confirmed case of the coronavirus, the Navajo Nation, which stretches across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, has reached a grim milestone. At least 1,197 Navajo residents have tested positive for the coronavirus, while 44 have died, officials said.

..more..

[cilla4progress]

1. ...

[Chainfire]

2. I watched a news story on the problem last night

I was floored to hear that only 30% of the Navajo homes have running water.

I did not know that such poverty still thrived in the richest country on earth.

[Bayard]

3. Its an ugly fact

That most people have never heard.

I can see they'd have trouble social distancing with so many crammed together in pitiful houses.

[dhill926]

4. and this for the first inhabitants...

of the supposedly greatest country on earth. Totally fucking unacceptable.

[GusBob]

5. I live and work on an Indian Reservation

Going on 2 years now. My First Nation friends would smile at the term “Indian Country”
Many of them feel the entire nation is Indian land

Things are bad in the Southwest for sure

But other tribes are faring Ok medically. We have zero cases here. Reservations are ideal for quarantine, at least ours is. The isolated, remote, far from urban centers and airports, etc. the casinos are a risk from travelers and tourists

We have been on quarantine for going on 6 weeks now. I think maybe am losing track of time. There is a curfew at night and tribal police checkpoints

As far as poverty and lack of sanitation. Yeah its always an issue. Even with plumbing there is always a water shortage here

Not to minimize but Natives are used to hardships and for the most part bear them stoically

Some of my friends say ‘oh we know all about the white mans pandemic from when they tried to wipe us out with smallpox’