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Six months into the pandemic, data on #COVID19 cases in #Indigenous communities remains scarce. As an infectious disease epidemiologist, and as Native American, I find this distressing. Here’s what I’ve recently gleaned from publicly available (but hard to find) data.
A thread:
A thread:
There are 12 tribes with at least 50 COVID-19 cases reported as of June 18. Navajo Nation has by far the highest total, but there are serious outbreaks in many other tribal communities. Some of these tribes are incredibly small; even 50 cases can greatly affect their population.
Beyond Navajo Nation, which has been extensively reported on, other tribes are experiencing a recent surge in cases over the past month, particularly the White Mountain Apache and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
Of course, many more tribes are affected. Data tracked by @IndianCountry and @jourdanbb show that 60+ tribes have reported cases. I previously mapped those cases here: https://bit.ly/indiancountrycovid19
We know that that Native, Black and Latino communities are being disproportionately affected by #COVID19, which makes this all the more important to have accurate data to respond and direct resources to these communities. This remains a serious challenge. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/11/native-american-coronavirus-data-314527
I'll continue to track COVID-19 in #NativeAmerican communities, and I hope other individuals and institutions devote the necessary time and resources to this important task! #epitwitter #nativeepi #Indigenous
