Wanted: One nation, one healthcare
Abiodun Giwa
Abiodun Giwa
Professor Vivian Cueto
Introduction to Health Care Management
Rutgers University, Newark
Spring, 2020
Attention: Dr. Anthony Fauci -White House Task Force on
Wanted: One nation, one health, against health inequity
As the nation struggles to combat and overcome the deadly impact of coronavirus, Covid-19, people in the Navajo Nation are crying for help from the federal government, People in the nation have underlying health issues like hypertension, asthma, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease and fear what become of many including children, in the face of inadequate hospitals and equipment to stabilize people who fall ill and are Covid-19 positive. Patients moved from hospitals of admission in Phoenix and Flagstaff, to Albuquerque to ensure adequate medical attention. There is fear among people in the Navajo Nation that if hospitals where these patients relocate is full like the hospitals of their first visit, it may result into a journey of no return since there will be no assurance of medical attention for such patients and the outcome may be avoidable death.
The possibility of infection from Covid-19 on the people of Navajo Nation resulting from lack of infrastructure, water supply, electricity and internet and the resultant difficulties it is causing efforts to tackle the Covid-19 in the region cannot be unattended or allowed continue, at least towards combating a future occurrence of a deadly health issue like Covid-19.News reports says the situation in the Navajo Nation making America looks like a country with two different health delivery: One for the have and the other for the have not. People in Navajo Nation has said in various reports that that is how their health situation has been from time immemorial and they do not know when the country will consider them fit for adequate health facility. People in the Navajo Nation are complaining aloud they live in fear and uncertainty because of the difference in access to quality of life between them and others in the country. They speak this is against the goal of health people or a healthy nation which defines the goal of health equity as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people.
”It is incontrovertible that there is a case of health disparity in the United States. People in the Navajo Nation references this situation as age-old dilemma that requires urgent attention to redress the existing inequity in health delivery. Reports have shown imbalance long time ago. But the historical aspect needs not stand between your panel and redressing it and stopping it from continuity to avoid impeding efforts such as you are making to keep all Americans safe from Covid-19 devastation from failing. If the situation cannot be addressed to save your panel’s work from failing, addressing it now can help salvage what ca Covid-19 and disparity in healthcare there lead to a worse situation in the future when a deadly virus like Covid-19 rare its ugly head It is true that the current situation in the Navajo Nation can impede your efforts because of the lack of access to water supply, electricity, internet access and good roads. As one of the scientists that the country relies upon to manage Covid-19 through the dark of the moment to get into the light after the tunnel and to prevent recurrence or continuity of the age-old and lack-luster efforts in addressing health issues in that of the country, the onus is on me to inform you of this inadequacy as a health worker, who knows about the inadequacy of health facility in the Navajo Nation. The first issue that needs your attention is that we live in a country of people with different health situations instead of one country, one health situation. No thanks to social determinants of health and its cause of disparities across the country.
Secondly, the current social coronavirus devastation has exposed the state of health inequities as it affects the Navajo Nation. Thirdly, I recommend that the country should quickly address the lack of adequate provision of water, electricity and internet access in the Navajo Nation and the reports that Covid-19 affects more people among the minority groups. Reports show that we currently live in a country of people varying different health situations. This should not be a normal way to approach human health issues since all human lives are precious and are worth of equal treatment and care. People are sad in Navajo Nations because governments in Washington do not care about them. They are complaining that lack of internet keeps them from access to news capable of helping them to know when to keep or adhere to basic health warnings like the ones that your panel has given to Americans to keep safe from Covid-19. They are saying that lack of access to water keeps them from washing hands as required by regulations to keep them safe. “Getting the message out about social distancing on the reservation was initially difficult. Nez updates daily on Facebook, but households lack quality internet access. It is also not practical for many on the reservation to follow stay-at-home orders.” The current social coronavirus devastation has exposed the abandonment of the provision of health facilities in the Navajo Nation leading to state of health inequities with the Navajo Nation in comparison to other parts of the country. The people in Navajo Nation describes this development as age long, depicting Washington’s abandonment of the nation against promise by the federal government to fund building of infrastructure and health service in the Native American nation.
Therefore, the Navajo nation suffers poverty and lack of infrastructure. The people have described their situation in term of Covid-19 infection rate as ten times higher per capita than about thirteen states in the country. The hospitals here are few and far apart. Patients face transfer to hospitals in Phoenix and Flagstaff for lack of beds and critical nursing staff. “Many native American hospitals are not equipped for multiple severe ventilator cases. For now, patients are airlifted in Phoenix and Flagstaff.” a news report reveals. I recommend that the country should quickly address the lack of adequate provision of water, electricity and internet access in the Navajo Nation and the reports that Covid-19 affects more people among the minority groups around the country. It is sickening to hear that there is a part of this country that lacks supply of clean water, electricity, and internet access. The Navajo nation is like a Third World country. “There are cases where a number of people have been exposed to some people, and we are trying to find those people,” Shawnell Damon confided to the NPR. According to him, the tribe has about eighty contact tracers working hard to do their work, but realities of life in the reservation make such tracing difficult because not everybody has phone, and it takes time to drive to people’s homes. In another case, a medical officer in a Navajo Area Indian Health Center said that telling people to wash hands for 20 seconds multiple times a day, and they do not have running water. Such people are vulnerably unable to heed basic warnings, the medical officer concluded. A principal at a high school said, “For all intents and purposes we operate in a third-world type situation and a struggle for families.” The issue is how these lack of essential elements like lack of access to phones, access to internet and bad road conditions are capable of negatively affecting the work of your panel. If contact-tracers inability to contact people who need tracing, would lead to infection of others and the number of infected people would increase. Posterity will not forgive your office if it fails to address the abandonment of the Navajo Nation with the administration. America may consequently record more infections and deaths. At least, if the situation cannot be immediately addressed to help save people from infection and avoidable death this time, it will be expected that with the provision of infrastructure, clean water, electricity and internet access, the health situation of the Navajo Nation would have been saved before any other devastating virus and the nation would not be exposed to further devastation in the future in case of any other occurrence.
Finally, I want your office to consider addressing the issue of how Covid-19 has affected the minority communities in the country. Unlike the Navajo Nation, other minority communities have access to water, electricity, internet access and good roads. It is possible that people with underlying illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and obesity may have caused avoidable deaths in those communities. Black people and Latinos as victims of Covid-19 needs attention. There is a need to tackle the cause to avoid such occurrence in the future. Numbers do not lie. Reports have shown that 34 percent of Covid-19 victims in Queens, New York, are Latinos. Twenty-nine percent of black residents in Chicago have 70 percent of Covid-19 victims. While in Michigan, 14 percent of black population has 40 percent of Covid-19 victims. There is health disparity in the country that needs attention to help in your panel’s work. All these are happening because women, children, ethnic minorities, the elderly, low-income inner-cities, rural and those with special health care needs lack priority in terms of research, policy, support, and funding. The shortfall in the handling of Covid-19 may be acting as an eye opener for the country to address the health disparity, but people in the Navajo Nation thinks otherwise citing their past experiences with smallpox and measles outbreak in the 16th century, the Spanish influenza in 1918, the Hantavirus, and the Swine flu, which they say are precedence of the way they have been abandoned to themselves. The Donald Trump administration can change the calculus if your panel as the scientists the president relies upon to address the Covid-19 monitoring let the president know the truth about the health care disparity in the country as it affects preventing, containment, and mitigating the spread of Covid-19. I will also recommend that the Covid-19 task force leaves the confine of the White House to monitor development in the reservation and other minority communities as part of the handling of your national assignment. (END)
Reference
Buchbinder, S.B, Shanks N. H, & Kite J.B. (2001) Introduction to health Care Management. Burlington: Jones and Bartlett.
Lange, J. (2020, April 21) Navajo nation outbreak reveals ugly truth behind America’s coronavirus experience? The Week. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from
http://www.theweek.com/articles/909787/navajo-outbreak-reveals -truth-behind -America’s -coronavirus-experience?
Groetzinger, K. (2020, April 22) Navajo families without internet struggle to home school during covid-19 pandemic. NPR. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/839948923
DeSantis, R. (2020, April 20) Navajo Nation lost more lives than thirteen states. People. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.people.com/human-interest/navajo-nation-lost-more -lives-coronavirus-than-13-states/
Abou-sabe, K., Mcfarden, C., Romo, C., & Longoria, J. (2020, April 20) Coronavirus batters Navajo nations: It is about getting worse. NBC News. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.nbcnews.com/health/healthnews/coronavirus-batters-navajo-nation-and-it-is-about-to-get-worse.
Morales, Laurel. (2020, Aril 24) Navajo nation sees high rate of covid-19 and contact tracing is a challenge. NPR. Retrieved April 29, 2020, retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2020/04/24/842945050/navajo-nation-sees-high-rate-of-covid-19-and-contact-tracing-is-a-challenge.
Sy, S., Jackson, L.I., & Kuhn, C. (2020, April) Navajo Nation hit hard by covid-19, comes together to protect its most vulnerable. PBSNEWSHOUR. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/navajo-nation-hit-hard-by-covid-19-comes-together-to-protect-its-most-vulnerable.
Professor Vivian Cueto
Introduction to Health Care Management
Rutgers University, Newark
Spring, 2020
Attention: Dr. Anthony Fauci -White House Task Force on
Wanted: One nation, one health, against health inequity
As the nation struggles to combat and overcome the deadly impact of coronavirus, Covid-19, people in the Navajo Nation are crying for help from the federal government, People in the nation have underlying health issues like hypertension, asthma, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease and fear what become of many including children, in the face of inadequate hospitals and equipment to stabilize people who fall ill and are Covid-19 positive. Patients moved from hospitals of admission in Phoenix and Flagstaff, to Albuquerque to ensure adequate medical attention. There is fear among people in the Navajo Nation that if hospitals where these patients relocate is full like the hospitals of their first visit, it may result into a journey of no return since there will be no assurance of medical attention for such patients and the outcome may be avoidable death.
The possibility of infection from Covid-19 on the people of Navajo Nation resulting from lack of infrastructure, water supply, electricity and internet and the resultant difficulties it is causing efforts to tackle the Covid-19 in the region cannot be unattended or allowed continue, at least towards combating a future occurrence of a deadly health issue like Covid-19.News reports says the situation in the Navajo Nation making America looks like a country with two different health delivery: One for the have and the other for the have not. People in Navajo Nation has said in various reports that that is how their health situation has been from time immemorial and they do not know when the country will consider them fit for adequate health facility. People in the Navajo Nation are complaining aloud they live in fear and uncertainty because of the difference in access to quality of life between them and others in the country. They speak this is against the goal of health people or a healthy nation which defines the goal of health equity as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people.
”It is incontrovertible that there is a case of health disparity in the United States. People in the Navajo Nation references this situation as age-old dilemma that requires urgent attention to redress the existing inequity in health delivery. Reports have shown imbalance long time ago. But the historical aspect needs not stand between your panel and redressing it and stopping it from continuity to avoid impeding efforts such as you are making to keep all Americans safe from Covid-19 devastation from failing. If the situation cannot be addressed to save your panel’s work from failing, addressing it now can help salvage what ca Covid-19 and disparity in healthcare there lead to a worse situation in the future when a deadly virus like Covid-19 rare its ugly head It is true that the current situation in the Navajo Nation can impede your efforts because of the lack of access to water supply, electricity, internet access and good roads. As one of the scientists that the country relies upon to manage Covid-19 through the dark of the moment to get into the light after the tunnel and to prevent recurrence or continuity of the age-old and lack-luster efforts in addressing health issues in that of the country, the onus is on me to inform you of this inadequacy as a health worker, who knows about the inadequacy of health facility in the Navajo Nation. The first issue that needs your attention is that we live in a country of people with different health situations instead of one country, one health situation. No thanks to social determinants of health and its cause of disparities across the country.
Secondly, the current social coronavirus devastation has exposed the state of health inequities as it affects the Navajo Nation. Thirdly, I recommend that the country should quickly address the lack of adequate provision of water, electricity and internet access in the Navajo Nation and the reports that Covid-19 affects more people among the minority groups. Reports show that we currently live in a country of people varying different health situations. This should not be a normal way to approach human health issues since all human lives are precious and are worth of equal treatment and care. People are sad in Navajo Nations because governments in Washington do not care about them. They are complaining that lack of internet keeps them from access to news capable of helping them to know when to keep or adhere to basic health warnings like the ones that your panel has given to Americans to keep safe from Covid-19. They are saying that lack of access to water keeps them from washing hands as required by regulations to keep them safe. “Getting the message out about social distancing on the reservation was initially difficult. Nez updates daily on Facebook, but households lack quality internet access. It is also not practical for many on the reservation to follow stay-at-home orders.” The current social coronavirus devastation has exposed the abandonment of the provision of health facilities in the Navajo Nation leading to state of health inequities with the Navajo Nation in comparison to other parts of the country. The people in Navajo Nation describes this development as age long, depicting Washington’s abandonment of the nation against promise by the federal government to fund building of infrastructure and health service in the Native American nation.
Therefore, the Navajo nation suffers poverty and lack of infrastructure. The people have described their situation in term of Covid-19 infection rate as ten times higher per capita than about thirteen states in the country. The hospitals here are few and far apart. Patients face transfer to hospitals in Phoenix and Flagstaff for lack of beds and critical nursing staff. “Many native American hospitals are not equipped for multiple severe ventilator cases. For now, patients are airlifted in Phoenix and Flagstaff.” a news report reveals. I recommend that the country should quickly address the lack of adequate provision of water, electricity and internet access in the Navajo Nation and the reports that Covid-19 affects more people among the minority groups around the country. It is sickening to hear that there is a part of this country that lacks supply of clean water, electricity, and internet access. The Navajo nation is like a Third World country. “There are cases where a number of people have been exposed to some people, and we are trying to find those people,” Shawnell Damon confided to the NPR. According to him, the tribe has about eighty contact tracers working hard to do their work, but realities of life in the reservation make such tracing difficult because not everybody has phone, and it takes time to drive to people’s homes. In another case, a medical officer in a Navajo Area Indian Health Center said that telling people to wash hands for 20 seconds multiple times a day, and they do not have running water. Such people are vulnerably unable to heed basic warnings, the medical officer concluded. A principal at a high school said, “For all intents and purposes we operate in a third-world type situation and a struggle for families.” The issue is how these lack of essential elements like lack of access to phones, access to internet and bad road conditions are capable of negatively affecting the work of your panel. If contact-tracers inability to contact people who need tracing, would lead to infection of others and the number of infected people would increase. Posterity will not forgive your office if it fails to address the abandonment of the Navajo Nation with the administration. America may consequently record more infections and deaths. At least, if the situation cannot be immediately addressed to help save people from infection and avoidable death this time, it will be expected that with the provision of infrastructure, clean water, electricity and internet access, the health situation of the Navajo Nation would have been saved before any other devastating virus and the nation would not be exposed to further devastation in the future in case of any other occurrence.
Finally, I want your office to consider addressing the issue of how Covid-19 has affected the minority communities in the country. Unlike the Navajo Nation, other minority communities have access to water, electricity, internet access and good roads. It is possible that people with underlying illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and obesity may have caused avoidable deaths in those communities. Black people and Latinos as victims of Covid-19 needs attention. There is a need to tackle the cause to avoid such occurrence in the future. Numbers do not lie. Reports have shown that 34 percent of Covid-19 victims in Queens, New York, are Latinos. Twenty-nine percent of black residents in Chicago have 70 percent of Covid-19 victims. While in Michigan, 14 percent of black population has 40 percent of Covid-19 victims. There is health disparity in the country that needs attention to help in your panel’s work. All these are happening because women, children, ethnic minorities, the elderly, low-income inner-cities, rural and those with special health care needs lack priority in terms of research, policy, support, and funding. The shortfall in the handling of Covid-19 may be acting as an eye opener for the country to address the health disparity, but people in the Navajo Nation thinks otherwise citing their past experiences with smallpox and measles outbreak in the 16th century, the Spanish influenza in 1918, the Hantavirus, and the Swine flu, which they say are precedence of the way they have been abandoned to themselves. The Donald Trump administration can change the calculus if your panel as the scientists the president relies upon to address the Covid-19 monitoring let the president know the truth about the health care disparity in the country as it affects preventing, containment, and mitigating the spread of Covid-19. I will also recommend that the Covid-19 task force leaves the confine of the White House to monitor development in the reservation and other minority communities as part of the handling of your national assignment. (END)
Reference
Buchbinder, S.B, Shanks N. H, & Kite J.B. (2001) Introduction to health Care Management. Burlington: Jones and Bartlett.
Lange, J. (2020, April 21) Navajo nation outbreak reveals ugly truth behind America’s coronavirus experience? The Week. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from
http://www.theweek.com/articles/909787/navajo-outbreak-reveals -truth-behind -America’s -coronavirus-experience?
Groetzinger, K. (2020, April 22) Navajo families without internet struggle to home school during covid-19 pandemic. NPR. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/839948923
DeSantis, R. (2020, April 20) Navajo Nation lost more lives than thirteen states. People. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.people.com/human-interest/navajo-nation-lost-more -lives-coronavirus-than-13-states/
Abou-sabe, K., Mcfarden, C., Romo, C., & Longoria, J. (2020, April 20) Coronavirus batters Navajo nations: It is about getting worse. NBC News. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.nbcnews.com/health/healthnews/coronavirus-batters-navajo-nation-and-it-is-about-to-get-worse.
Morales, Laurel. (2020, Aril 24) Navajo nation sees high rate of covid-19 and contact tracing is a challenge. NPR. Retrieved April 29, 2020, retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2020/04/24/842945050/navajo-nation-sees-high-rate-of-covid-19-and-contact-tracing-is-a-challenge.
Sy, S., Jackson, L.I., & Kuhn, C. (2020, April) Navajo Nation hit hard by covid-19, comes together to protect its most vulnerable. PBSNEWSHOUR. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/navajo-nation-hit-hard-by-covid-19-comes-together-to-protect-its-most-vulnerable.
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