tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Health Equity
. 2021 Jun 8;5(1):394-397.
doi: 10.1089/heq.2021.0011. eCollection 2021.
American Indians and Alaska Natives in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Grave Burden We Stand to Bear
Erik Brodt[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Allison Empey[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The United States is bearing witness as a crisis-within-a-crisis unfolds across Indian Country, where a persistently underfunded system with inadequate resources and outdated facilities set the stage for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to overwhelm Tribes. Now is the time to reimagine our way forward as a country beyond the pandemic. To address these issues, we recommend that (1) the federal government appropriately fund the Indian Health Service and work more closely with tribal governments, and (2) programs that recruit, train, and retain American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) health professionals be expanded. We offer guidance on decisive and impactful steps that can be taken, together, today.
Keywords: American Indian health; COVID-19; Indigenous health; Native American health; health inequities.
. 2021 Jun 8;5(1):394-397.
doi: 10.1089/heq.2021.0011. eCollection 2021.
American Indians and Alaska Natives in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Grave Burden We Stand to Bear
Erik Brodt[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Allison Empey[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34235363
- PMCID: PMC8237096
- DOI: 10.1089/heq.2021.0011
Abstract
The United States is bearing witness as a crisis-within-a-crisis unfolds across Indian Country, where a persistently underfunded system with inadequate resources and outdated facilities set the stage for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to overwhelm Tribes. Now is the time to reimagine our way forward as a country beyond the pandemic. To address these issues, we recommend that (1) the federal government appropriately fund the Indian Health Service and work more closely with tribal governments, and (2) programs that recruit, train, and retain American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) health professionals be expanded. We offer guidance on decisive and impactful steps that can be taken, together, today.
Keywords: American Indian health; COVID-19; Indigenous health; Native American health; health inequities.