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<p>Hi Claudio, Here's a note from Hesperian on the dealing with the
social determinants of health and the coronavirus in the US.
Perhaps you might post it on the PHM listserv.<br>
</p>
<p>You can use this on-line link as well: <a
href="https://hesperian.org/2020/03/05/coronavirus/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://hesperian.org/2020/03/05/coronavirus/<br>
</a></p>
<p>And here's the link to our COVID-19 Fact Sheet: <a
href="https://en.hesperian.org/hhg/Coronavirus"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://en.hesperian.org/hhg/Coronavirus</a>
in English. Spanish will be up shortly, and Kreyol and French next
week.</p>
<p>Stay well, Todd Jailer, Hesperian </p>
<p>*************</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Coronavirus</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Coronavirus is all over the news and people are
looking for how-to, actionable information on surviving the
pandemic. But limiting advice and actions to improving individual
or community hygiene is only washing our hands of the problem. To
successfully defeat the looming epidemic, we have to change a
health system that places profit over health. We have to recognize
and address the political, social and economic factors –the social
determinants of health -- that govern how health or illness moves
through our communities. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of what to do immediately about
coronavirus (or COVID-19) is already known: Wash your hands; don’t
touch your face so often; stay home if you are sick. Clean
surfaces often that are touched by multiple people. Since the
virus is mostly transmitted by respiration, cough or sneeze into
your elbow, wear a mask if you are sick or around sick people, or
stay about 6 feet away from people you speak with if you think the
virus is active in your area. (See our COVID-19 Fact Sheet for
more details.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While individual action is important, it will
not stop an epidemic, only collective action will. We have to
start acting like the connections among us are not routes to
transmit disease, but the channels through which we can defeat it.
There are many actions and policies we can demand to lower the
possibility that COVID-19 becomes epidemic in the United States:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">1) Guaranteed income for people affected by the
virus.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of us live paycheck to paycheck and cannot
afford to stay home from work without pay. Quarantines are
difficult enough for people without making them worse by causing
financial disaster.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The federal government has refused to require
employers to pay sick leave, and even states that do -- California
requires only 3 days a year – would not cover the time necessary
for your quarantine, much less if your quarantine is because
someone else in your household is sick. And how would people with
the lowest wages survive, those in service or production jobs who
cannot telecommute (as our health advisors so blithely suggest),
if their employers shut down?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If
schools are closed to prevent disease from spreading, how will
adults stay home with children and not lose their jobs or income?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In places like the Bay Area, where housing
costs take the lion’s share of monthly expenses, it may also be
necessary to declare mortgage holidays and a moratorium on
evictions. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2) Free access to testing and treatment</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The cost of health care already stops people
from getting timely testing and treatment for health problems.
With coronavirus, our health system is a prescription for an
epidemic. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The CDC bungled producing testing kits for
COVID-19, and hospitals still have a shortage. People who have
been tested are being charged thousands of dollars. When asked
about treatment costs, HHS Secretary Azar refused to say treatment
would be affordable: “We can’t control that price because we need
the private sector to invest."</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the US continues on the
health-care-for-profit path, it insures the epidemic will be more
widespread and more severe. Free access to testing and treatment
for coronavirus is essential, as it is for other health
conditions. Demand access to care now and in November don’t vote
for anyone who doesn’t support Medicare for All – they’re
basically telling you that saving your life is too expensive. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">3) Prioritize reaching the most vulnerable
communities</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">People of color and low-income communities have
more exposure to disease and less access to health care
facilities. We can’t perpetuate this injustice in our coronavirus
response.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">People already sick, especially those with
breathing problems, have a higher chance of getting severely ill
and dying from COVID-19. Environmental racism places factories and
freeways disproportionately in poor communities of color, leading,
for example, to 20% more asthma among African Americans. By
prioritizing reaching communities marginalized by the medical
system with necessary supplies, testing and treatment, we can slow
the epidemic and begin to undo the deadly relationship of ill
health, inequity and injustice. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These are all achievable demands. To win them,
we have to organize pressure on our local, state and national
governments from our neighborhood organizations, unions, churches,
professional groups, and within the political parties that are
contending for our votes this election year. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We can also organize locally to care for each
other:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">--Reorient your Neighborhood Watch or
Earthquake Preparedness group to check up on your neighbors. Find
out who is sick and who needs help.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">--Expand the reach of Meals on Wheels and other
such programs to feed those in quarantine.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">--Volunteer and train others to be community
health outreach workers to help answer questions and prepare your
neighborhood for the coronavirus.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">-- Support “gig workers,” the human backbone of
food and supplies order and delivery apps, in their struggles to
be paid for the time and disinfection supplies<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>they need to safely support
people stuck at home in quarantine.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What really stands out in the face of an
epidemic like coronavirus is our leaders’ antagonism to the
concept of “the public good” -- unless it’s profitable, it just
shouldn’t exist. Our public health systems have been weakened by
millions of dollars of budget cuts, an opposition to regulation of
both pollution and greed, and the refusal to build or maintain
common infrastructure. If we are going to survive coronavirus with
a minimum of deaths, we need to replace our health-for-profit
system with one that recognizes that health is a human right. </p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Todd Jailer, Managing Editor
Hesperian Health Guides
Knowledge for action.
Action for health.
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:todd@hesperian.org" moz-do-not-send="true">todd@hesperian.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.hesperian.org" moz-do-not-send="true">www.hesperian.org</a>
1919 Addison Street, Suite 304
Berkeley, California 94704
tel: (510) 845-1447 x 229
fax: (510) 845-0539</pre>
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