Moneda Moves (62): Meet the doctors serving Latino & Asian immigrants at no costš„
Welcome back, mi gente. This week, we've been thinking a lot about how we reopen as a country without seeing another surge of illnesses and deaths, especially for vulnerable communities. If you have seen news coverage around Latinos and COVID during the pandemic, a few headlines you may have read include:
Latinos are disproportionately hurt by coronavirus in Maryland
Virus is twice as deadly for Black and Latino people than whites in NYC
Illinois Latinos surpass African Americans in coronavirus cases
San Jose leaders decry disproportionate deaths of minority residents
If you do get sick as someone who is of color and poor, getting proper care is also not an easy task. The average cost to treat a hospitalized patient with coronavirus is a crippling $30,000 as reported by CNBC. But at SOMOS Community Care, you can get seen for no cost and with no questions asked on citizenship status. Dr. Ramon Tallaj, who is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic himself knows this is a big deal for people coming from these communities fearing for their lives while also living with limited resources.
In this week's Moneda Moves episode, Dr. Tallaj paints a picture of how COVID is disproportionately hurting the Latino and Asian immigrant communities in New York City. Heās seen it first-hand. Dr. Tallaj oversees the SOMOS provider system: a network of 3,500 health care providers and over 650,000 patients now serving immigrants impacted by COVID-19. This week, we speak about Latinos, immigrants and how their health is affected by the pandemic. Listen here.
To learn more about SOMOS, their work in New York City, and how you can potentially help, visit somoscommunitycare.org.
Over at MSNBC, Morgan Radford also did a solid report this week detailing how Latino communities are hit hard by the pandemic.
Latinos are being affected by COVID-19 more than other ethnicitiesā
Con poderāš½,
Lyanne