Native Americans make up 50% of COVID-19 deaths in New Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Tucson Sentinel

Posted May 12, 2020, 7:24 pm

Marjorie Childress

Half of the 200 people who had died as of yesterday in New Mexico from COVID-19 were Native Americans, a jarring number for a population that makes up 11% of the state’s population.

It’s another grim statistic for the state’s 23 tribes who have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico. Nearly 60% of people identified to date through testing as infected with the virus are indigenous.

Data about those who’ve died, provided to New Mexico In Depth by the New Mexico Department of Health, came in advance of Monday’s daily update from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office. That update included eight additional deaths, pushing the state’s death total to 208, four of which occurred in hard-hit McKinley County, where Native Americans make up almost 80% of the population.

The 100 deaths attributed to Native Americans in New Mexico likely include Navajo people living in the state as well as Native Americans from the state’s more than 20 other tribes.

Read more: http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/051220_nm_cv_native_am/native-americans-make-up-50-covid-19-deaths-new-mexico/

[JudyM]

1. This is so sad. Awful.

[chowder66]

2. This is devastating.

[burrowowl]

3. Yes, very sad

Doctors Without Borders is sending medical staff and aid.

[applegrove]

4. They should be allowed to lock down their communities and keep non residents

from coming in. The governors should stand aside.

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. Might be a bit difficult. The Navajo land is almost the size of New England...

(minus Maine, but still large)

[applegrove]

8. I guess it would be hard. Indigenous groups in canada are doing it in some places.

But they are more remote than the southwest is.

[iluvtennis]

5. +++++++++ agree. nt

[CountAllVotes]

6. The genocide continues

Unseen blanket w/smallpox this time around.

[peacebuzzard]

9. Horrific. The Native Americans were banished from everywhere.

They faced only broken promises, genocide, slaughter, and left to die on so many fronts.
Yet they stand tall, proud, faithful to their tribes. I grieve for their great losses, once again, at this moment.
The Native Americans own this nation, for hundreds of years it has been an outright hijacking of their lands and homes.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. I live in New Mexico.

It's important to know that on the reservations, a huge number who live there do not have access to running water. They are living in what most of us would consider primitive conditions.

And yes, the majority of infections and deaths in New Mexico are with these people. They deserve better.

[Bayard]

11. Criminal and disgusting

I've never figured out why so many Natives still live in third world conditions in this country, except that most, "Americans", either don't know or don't give a rat's ass. They deserve so much better.

I'm sure they are more vulnerable because of underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and obesity.