New public health department data continues to confirm that Latino communities in major areas across the country are being disproportionately impacted by the devastation of the novel coronavirus pandemic, both in terms of infections and deaths. “In New York City, Hispanics are dying at rates more than 50% higher than their white counterparts, and more than twice the rate of Asians, according to the New York City Health Department,” CNN reports.
Frankie Miranda, president of advocacy group Hispanic Federation, tells CNN many of these workers are being impacted because working from home is simply not an option. "We are dying at a higher rate because we have no other choice,” he said. “These are the delivery food people, the people that are the day workers, the farm workers, these are people that are working in restaurants. They are essential services, and now they are not enjoying the protections that maybe in other industries people can have."
Early data showed that Latinos were among the first communities to be impacted by job loss amid the pandemic, with nearly half saying in early April that they or someone in their house had lost work, compared with 33% of adults overall, Pew Research Center said. In fact, “across all education levels, higher shares of Latinos than of the general public say someone in their household has lost their job, taken a pay cut or both because of the COVID-19 outbreak.” But in addition to economic costs, the pandemic is also claiming human costs.
“Amid a surge in cases, Latinos in Chicago represent nearly 39% of confirmed coronavirus cases, despite making up nearly 30% of the population,” CNN reported. “Four weeks ago, the percentage of confirmed cases among Latino residents was just 14%.” The Guardian reported last month that in New Jersey, “Latinos make up 19% of the population, but nearly 30% of COVID-19 patients in that state identified as Hispanic. In Washington state, 25% of those infected are Latino while they make up only 13% of the state’s total population.”
There’s no denying that the Trump administration’s racist and destructive policies have had a role in intentionally harming this community, from forcing meatpacking plant workers to labor in unsafe conditions because the impeached president is worried about his reelection, to Stephen Miller’s discriminatory public charge rule that has made some afraid to seek care. While officials subsequently claimed it would not punish families seeking medical treatment related to the pandemic, “this information may have been overshadowed by the all-consuming nature of the pandemic,” MedPage Today said.
Catalina Sol, director of Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group La Clinica del Pueblo, told NPR that ”Here, locally, the first person I believe that died who refused to get into an ambulance was an immigrant. And we do have patients that fear what will happen if they show up into hospitals or if they show up to seek services in terms of their immigration status. It's a very real fear.” NPR reported that the Columbia Heights neighborhood where the organization is located has been the most impacted in terms of infections in the area.
“In our region,” she continued, “we've been waiting for this moment where the data would show what we're seeing on the ground, which is that our Latino immigrant community is more highly at risk for COVID due to being a part of the essential workforce that's keeping food on our tables and the essential services going in many of our facilities and areas of the workplace and also that we are a community that still has to go to restaurants, laundromats and take public transportation to be able to go to work and meet the needs of our families. So we're more highly exposed.”