USA
There was a severe COVID-19 testing shortage in the US. You could only get tests at designated facilities and through " pop up testing sites", not your primary care physician. They set up the pop up testing and facilities in wealthy neighborhoods and did not provide those same resources to minority communities. In addition, Minorities were turned away from testing at hospitals at a higher rate than non minorities. Trump turned down the COVID-19 tests provided by WHO and instead wanted the US to make their own, then delayed it further by having to recall the faulty tests, and then once they had tests, they failed to secure testing supplies so sadly the US is STILL not being able to test as much as they need to be and are still turning people away from testing.
Questions of Bias in Covid-19 Treatment Add to the Mourning for Black Families (Published 2020)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised health professionals to be on the lookout for medical bias.
The Coronavirus Doesn't Discriminate, But U.S. Health Care Showing Familiar Biases
Most available coronavirus data doesn't include ethnic or racial demographics, but public health experts say they fear the response to the pandemic will lead to predictable health care disparities.
www.npr.org
Can anyone get tested for coronavirus now? Here's who qualifies
Some counties are letting anyone get tested, while some are still limited. Here's what we know.
www.cnet.com
410,000 coronavirus swabs a week: Nursing home employee testing remains a major hurdle
New York’s nursing homes, some the scene of staggering COVID-19 death tolls , are scrambling to implement...
www.recordonline.com
In addition, minority communities in the US lack basic access to primary care treatment to begin with due to the way the for profit insurance based system works in the US. So even when they are needing basic treatment for non COVID-19 related health issues, they do not have treatment options available to them at all. How this works in the US, instead however, is you can go to an emergency room to be stabilized, but then they give you a referral to a specialist for actual treatment. In order to see the specialist, if you do not have good insurance, the specialist can require full payment up front instead.
For example, my brother who did not have insurance prior to Obamacare, he had his thumb almost cut off on his right hand while working on an airplane ( he was an Airplane mechanic) and went to the ER, where they stabilized him but did not do the surgery required to be able to regain use of his thumb. When he went to the specialist they referred him to, the specialist said he would have to pay $10,000 cash up front for him to be able to do the surgery and then would need more if follow up surgeries were needed in the future. My brother could not afford to have the surgery due to this and lost the use of his thumb on his right hand permanently since he missed the window of time needed to act to save the nerves. He has been unemployed since this indecent and due to him being considered contract labor at the airplane hangar, he received no workers benefits as well and then the hanger itself closed later that year after the owner passed away. AT least since he was able to receive free healthcare under Obamacare , as I mentioned how he did this on another thread already, he has been able to receive basic access to medications and treatment, but it doesn't solve his many other issues that have forever changed his life over this incident. The problem now, that is even with Obamacare, we still have large cash copayments that still keep many services out of reach for the low income community. For example, even with the ACA, you can have to pay $800 before even being able to receive a test needed to begin treatment. That doesn't even include treatment, but just the tests to figure out the best action to take here. These are some of the issues that still need to be addressed in order for us to actually have universal healthcare in the US. Due to these issues and many other factors, most of the low income and minority communities do not have access to basic health services like other communities are provided.
The riots and fires are going to be impacting these communities worse than most, I already addressed that clearly earlier in the thread. However, the protesters should also not allow themselves to be bullied into silence by those who are committing these acts and should continue to try to be heard. I would never expect anyone to put themselves or others in danger, and really do hope someone can manage to get PPE to these people to help keep them safer, and hopefully they can actually utilize police resources on catching the actual perpetrators of the fires rather than wasting their resources against unarmed protesters that have nothing to do with that.
Other people starting fires and looting is not a reason for protesters to stop protesting. Public officials and police departments refusing to address their concerns is not a reason for the protesters to stop protesting. The government refusing to allow them access to PPE is not a reason to stop protesting. All of those things are just being used as an excuse to bully them into silence, and I do not blame them for not accepting it.
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