{"id":13229,"date":"2021-02-26T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T06:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/covid-19-disparities-fuel-tribes-vaccine-rollout-success\/"},"modified":"2021-02-26T01:47:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T06:47:11","slug":"covid-19-disparities-fuel-tribes-vaccine-rollout-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/covid-19-disparities-fuel-tribes-vaccine-rollout-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 disparities fuel tribes\u2019 vaccine rollout success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Agnes Attakai<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

TUCSON, Ariz. \u2013 Even though Agnes Attakai is a longtime Indian health administrator, she had no way of knowing that her Din\u00e9 family members would become a textbook illustration of Native America\u2019s disadvantages in facing the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Then she was forced to say goodbye to two aunts, an uncle and a cousin who succumbed to Covid-19 within three weeks of each other following the Thanksgiving Day holiday. She experienced first-hand the losses that are an all too common story among many Native American families.<\/p>\n

Releasing the most recent in a plethora of reports on Covid-19 rates by race and ethnic markers, the Centers for Disease Control showed American Indian and Alaska Native people are 3.7 times more likely to be hospitalized from Covid-19 than Asian and non-Hispanic persons, as well as 2.4 times more likely to die from it.<\/p>\n

These are the highest rates of any racial or ethnic group represented in the study. Data from the CDC and other health agencies have shown this kind of wide disparity since the beginning of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

As is true with so many families, Attakai\u2019s was not able to hold the hands of their loved ones battling the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on Zoom with him for almost eight hours,\u201d she said, describing her uncle\u2019s final moments. \u201cWe talked to him and played his favorite songs,\u201d she told the Native Sun News Today.<\/p>\n

She described his grandchildren looking on from behind a glass barrier, knocking on it to let him know they were there.<\/p>\n

Attakai is the director of Health Disparities Outreach & Prevention Education at the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n

She said the outsized hospitalization and death rates among AI\/AN people can largely be attributed to underfunding of the Indian Health Service (IHS) and resource allocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on where you go, you might have really good care, other places you might not,\u201d she said. She added that funds are distributed to IHS facilities differently and that many do not provide emergency or inpatient services.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times, they can\u2019t treat Covid-19 patients in the facilities,\u201d she said. \u201cIf patients had milder symptoms, they would treat them but everyone else was transported out.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Navajo tribal members with severe Covid-19 symptoms are often transported to non-IHS facilities in Tucson, Phoenix and Albuquerque, at which they may not have full coverage.<\/p>\n

In response, some IHS clinics in the Navajo Nation started utilizing available building spaces and pop-up tents for urgent care so they could separate Covid-19 patients from everyone else.<\/p>\n

Attakai added that the tribe has paid for motel stays for those who are Covid-positive, in order to help keep people \u2013 often living in multi-generational homes \u2014 quarantined.<\/p>\n

Jo Carrillo, law professor and Director of the Indigenous Law Center at UC Hastings, agrees that the underfunding of the IHS is a major factor in these disparities. She cited a 2017 New York Times report that found that IHS funding allows for roughly $3,000 per patient per year compared with $13,000 for the general population on Medicare, and $7,700 for those on Medicaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese [IHS] allocations were insufficient in 2017 and they\u2019re certainly insufficient for the Covid emergency today,\u201d she said. \u201cThe IHS, in my view, is part of the story of Covid\u2019s impact on Native American and indigenous communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an analysis by the National Congress of American Indians, IHS funds would have to double<\/a> in order to match the average healthcare allocation for federal prisoners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IHS has been underfunded from the start,\u201d said Jonathan Nez, President of the Navajo Nation. \u201cBecause of that underfunding, there is limited resources going out to the Navajo Nation and all 574 tribes throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that 29,000 Navajo people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and over 1,000 people have died from it.<\/p>\n

In addition to IHS funding issues, other infrastructure factors affect Covid-19 rates among many Native Americans.<\/p>\n

Some 30-40 percent of Navajo citizens have no running water. \u2018They don\u2019t have electricity as well,\u201d said Nez. \u201cWhen we were hoping for relief to come from the federal government, the first citizens of this country had to wait and actually file a lawsuit for our share of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

He referred to the federal government\u2019s delay early in 2020 in distributing $8 billion of CARES Act funds set aside for tribal members. In May, six tribes filed a lawsuit to force the U.S. Treasury to distribute the funds.<\/p>\n

Tribe-owned business\u2019 closures also have impacted Native communities\u2019 ability to fight the effects of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost tribal communities do not have a tax base and they depend upon businesses run by tribal entities,\u201d said Attakai. \u201cDue to Covid and the stay-at-home orders, a lot of businesses were shuttered.\u201d She said the temporary closure of casinos in particular has hit hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gaming industry employs a lot of Native folks in the community. Most of my relatives work in some of those facilities,\u201d she said. \u201cFunds that come from gaming go into tribal coffers to help fund law enforcement, education, health care and other critical services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the many systemic challenges that tribes face in keeping their communities safe during a pandemic, one bright spot has been the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations.<\/p>\n

The Urban Indian Health Institute recently released a report stating that 75 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives are willing to get vaccinated, compared to roughly 60 percent in the rest of the population.<\/p>\n

The study found that the main reason given for willingness to vaccinate is a sense of responsibility to the community and future generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve put 74,845 shots into the arms of our Navajo citizens,\u201d said Navajo President Nez. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard, per-capita early on in this pandemic, that the Navajo Nation was number one in the country for Covid-positive cases\u2026. Now we are number one per capita in the country for administering vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attakai said that the Navajo Nation\u2019s choice to receive vaccinations directly from the federal government as opposed to the state has helped make the rollout more efficient. She added that massive education efforts have also played a major role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve really been putting out the information regarding the value and importance of vaccinations,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd of course, families have been hard-hit.\u201d She said the many losses in Native American communities have made people hungry for the vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they have vaccines available, there are huge lines and people will wait all day in their cars. You\u2019ll see the lines going for miles,\u201d she said. She described that her own family\u2019s losses amplified the importance of the vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother got vaccinated\u2026. For him there was an urgency in getting it because of losing family members,\u201d she said. \u201cI have other family members that want to get vaccinated, but they don\u2019t live on a reservation, so they have to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mahnomen County, completely situated within the boundaries of the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwest Minnesota, 85 percent of residents aged 65 and older have been vaccinated, one of the highest rates in the state, public radio reported last week.<\/p>\n

Minnesota\u2019s state reporting on Native Covid-19 is among the best of the 50 states, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute.<\/p>\n

Experts attribute the positive outcomes to close collaboration between reservation and county officials, as well as large vaccination allocations.<\/p>\n

However, data collection and analysis of AI\/NA pandemic still \u201chas resulted in a substantial gap in understanding the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people of color across the U.S.,\u201d the institute complained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a data genocide on Native people,\u201d said Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the institute. \u201cAmerican Indians and Alaska Natives are dying at disproportionate rates and decision makers don\u2019t even have accurate data to ensure we are properly funded and resourced,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

(Contact Justine Anderson at justinekanderson@gmail.net<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The post Covid-19 disparities fuel tribes\u2019 vaccine rollout success<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Agnes Attakai TUCSON, Ariz. \u2013 Even though Agnes Attakai is a longtime Indian health administrator, she had no way of knowing that her Din\u00e9 family members would become a textbook illustration of Native America\u2019s disadvantages in facing the Covid-19 pandemic. Then she was forced to say goodbye <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> February 26, 2021<\/p>\n

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