Reflective Paper
During this hearing, I learned a lot about the impacts of Covid-19 of racial minorities and what is being done by the stakeholders to help reduce infection. The topic of the hearing was COVID -19’s disparate health impacts on seniors from racial and ethnic minority communities. The hearing was held by the special committee on aging and was chaired by Senator Susan Collins and was held on Tuesday, July 21, 2020. The hearing was held to help understand why the state is having the worst racial disparity in the country concerning COVID- 19 infections. According to Senator Collins, many of the infected populations are immigrants from African countries as well as Haiti. She wanted to know what the state is doing towards expanding the state’s overall test capacity and reducing the number of infected people from the racial minority communities.
I think that the issue addressed at the hearing is important as historic trends have shown that severe illnesses and death rates are always higher for minority populations during public health emergencies. The hearing was, therefore, important for addressing the needs of these populations in the wake of COVID-19 and identifying the best practices for these minority groups in preventing the infection and spread of the virus. Women from minority groups particularly face most hardships given the extra burden they face of gender discrimination and inequality. They are, for instance, misrepresented in the formal job sector which provides health insurance and paid leave. This makes them more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Additionally, information on methods to prevent infection and availability of health care services is also not available in minority languages, increasing the risk of people in these groups to getting infected. This hearing was therefore important to help find the best ways to help the minority communities.
The hearing began by Senator Collin’s, the Chair for the hearing, opening statement. She then went ahead to ask questions to the members of the panel concerning the issue being discussed. Among the members present at the hearing was Dr Mercedes Carnethon and Dr Dominic H. Mack. Senator Collins invited Dr Mack to explain what they were doing to help address this issue of racial disparity in COVID-19 cases. Dr Mack highlighted the lack of insurance cover by most people from the minority communities as one of the major reasons for increased cases of COVID-19 infections among these communities. These people just cannot afford the bills that are being incurred in health care centres.
According to Dr Mack, one of how to address the issue is by providing education and training to these minority groups. He goes ahead to pinpoint mistrust of the government and the health care system by people from the minority communities as one of the reasons for the rapid spread of the virus among these people. According to Dr Mack, the best way to address the issue is to make sure that services and procedures are linguistically and culturally appropriate to those audiences (the racial minorities). This is being done by using partnerships with people from minority communities like community care workers who live in these communities and who understand the barriers that they face.
Dr Mercedes also had similar views on how to address the issue of racial disparity on COVID-19 cases. She emphasized the need for partnerships with the local community. According to Dr Mercedes, there is a need to engage people from the minority communities to use individuals who are trusted by the people from the community. By using individuals who are trusted by the people, more positive results will be realized for the outreach efforts. Using people from the government given the current climate will only cause more anxiety to the minority communities, limiting their ability to cooperate resulting little benefit. There is also a need to create partnerships between academic institutions, health care organizations and the community leaders. These partnerships will help bridge the gap and reach more people hence promoting prevention. She also emphasized that reaching people in their language is crucial in building the trust of the minority community in the health care system. This will in turn help generate more positive results from the efforts by the health care system to help prevent infection in minority communities.
I found the arguments provided by the stakeholders persuasive in that partnership with the people living within the minority communities is crucial for removing the racial disparity in COVID-19 infections in the state of Maine. People who live within these areas best understand the problems faced by these people and are, therefore, in a better position for helping address these issues. Additionally, people will relate to them and feel more secure when dealing with them than when dealing with officials from the government. One of the reasons that make minority communities highly vulnerable to diseases is language and cultural barriers that limit their access to health care. Ensuring that services are linguistically and culturally appropriate will go a long way in reducing and preventing infection within these minority groups.
While the hearing was about COVID-19’s disparate health impacts on the racial and minority communities, listening to the hearing made me reflect upon all the challenges that these minority communities face while living in the United States. Proper health care is not the only issue that these communities face. They also face social discrimination, unequal access to employment and housing, and justice. The government should look to address all these issues and not just the health care system.
References
U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging:https://www.aging.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-collins-leads-hearing-on-covid-19s-disparate-health-impacts-on-seniors-from-racial-and-ethnic-minority-communities
Senator Collins Q & A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wslm1E1m2bM&feature=youtu.be