For Latinos and Coronavirus, Doctors are Seeing an 'Alarming' Disparity

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/coronavirus-latinos-disparity.html



Dr. Eva Galvez works as a family physician for a network of clinics in northwestern Oregon, where low-income patients have been streaming in for nasal swabs over the past several weeks to test for the coronavirus. Dr. Galvez was dumbfounded by the results. Latinos, about half of those screened, were 20 times as likely as other patients to have the virus. “The disparity really alarmed me,” said Dr. Galvez, who began trying to understand what could account for the difference. It is a question that epidemiologists around the country are examining as more and more evidence emerges that the coronavirus is impacting Latinos, and some other groups, including African-Americans, with particular force.

Oregon is one of many states where Latinos are showing a disproportionate level of impact, and the effects are seen among both immigrants and Latinos from multigenerational American families. In Iowa, Latinos account for more than 20 percent of coronavirus cases though they are only 6 percent of the population. Latinos in Washington State make up 13 percent of the population but 31 percent of cases. In Florida, they are just over a quarter of the population but account for two of every five virus cases where ethnicity is known. Because most of the clients at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center clinics in Oregon are relatively poor whatever their ethnic background, Dr. Galvez decided that income could not explain the disparity.

Public health experts say Latinos may be more vulnerable to the virus as a result of the same factors that have put minorities at risk across the country. Many have low-paying service jobs that require them to work through the pandemic, interacting with the public. A large number also lack access to health care, which contributes to higher rates of diabetes and other conditions that can worsen infections. Oregon last month expanded testing criteria to prioritize Latinos and other minorities, citing the higher risk posed from the virus because of “longstanding social and health inequities.”

At the Virginia Garcia clinics, Dr. Galvez sees those inequities among her patients every day. “We realized that it must be how Latinos live and work that’s driving these disparities,” said Dr. Galvez, who works at the clinic in Hillsboro, outside Portland. The Hispanic patients, many of them immigrants, help produce some of the country’s premier pinot noir, maintain Nike’s sprawling headquarters and plant berries, hazelnuts and Christmas trees in the Willamette Valley. Others are seasonal workers who are expected to begin arriving by the thousands later this month for the harvest. They live in close quarters, often multiple families to a house or with several farmworkers crowded into a barracks-style room, where social distancing and self-isolation are impossible. They perform jobs that require interaction with the general public, in food service, transportation and delivery; and some also work in meatpacking plants that have emerged as major hot spots.

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