Essay Sample on COVID-19 Infections Among the Latino Community

The COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019 in Wuhan City of China. The intense travels initially promoted transmission of the virus during the Chinese New Year and spread to various parts globally, including in the United States. The novel coronavirus has negatively affected the living state of millions of people in both the United States and the World. The USA has more than 185,000 confirmed COVID-19-related deaths (Dorn et al., 2020). The country has recorded at least six million COVID-19 cases as of August 31. The rate of infections in the US has been the highest in the World, mainly hitting local Latino communities hard, which has forced State and local authorities to put in place prohibitions of large gatherings in a bid to curb the infection rates of the virus. This essay will analyze the various factors contributing to more COVID-19 infections and deaths among the US Latino community.

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The COVID-19 Infection Spread among Latino Communities.

COVID-19 infection rates have been disproportionate among Latino communities in the US. As of June 2020, the community recorded the least number of COVID-19 cases in the US, which were 33 percent (Rodriguez-Diaz et al., 2020). In addition, the Latinos have recorded the largest age-related rates of COVID-19 hospital admissions, currently standing at 117 for every 100,000 American citizens (Rodriguez-Diaz et al., 2020). Several drivers of these high rates of infections in Latino communities have been noted (Rodriguez-Diaz et al., 2020). (Rodriguez-Diaz et al., 2020) applied a county-level approach in identifying patterns and COVID-19 diagnosis among Latino communities using heterogeneity as a factor in understanding whether differences in demographic variables could be the primary drivers of the high infection rates. The study found disproportionately higher coronavirus rates in Latino populations, including the North-East US, where Latino communities are not very large (Dorn et al., 2020). The outbreak was unusually large in the Midwest, where there were large groups of Latino immigrants’ workers in the meatpacking industry. Occupational exposure was identified as a factor in the high infection rates of COVID-19 cases among the Latino populations (Hooper et al., 2020). The reason for this is that compared to other ethnic groups, the Latino population are younger and thus overrepresented in the workforce, which means they are highly subjected to occupational exposure. Most of the Latino community members work in factories and other industries considered essential to running the country, which has left them exposed to COVID-19 infections. The high death rate among the old age members of the Latino community can be attributed to current woes in their access to better healthcare (Hooper et al., 2020).

Heterogeneity Factor in COVID-19 Spread

Heterogeneity in scientific terms signifies diversity (Zeni, 2019). Social demographic homogeneity has been identified as a factor in the spread of COVID-19 infections (Rodriguez-Diaz et al., 2020). Ethnicity and household sizes in large Latino populations in the US have been linked to the increased spread of COVID-19. Heterogeneity was identified as a critical factor in the smallpox epidemic 100 years ago (Zeni, 2019). The same case has happened with COVID-19 infections. The heterogeneity of COVID-19 is similar to other pathogens, such as smallpox. This has made the transmission potential of the coronavirus to be too high compared to its predecessors. The heterogeneity transmission has been exceptionally high for the Latino community than other ethnic groups in the US, which has left many scientists baffled by the phenomena.

Conclusion

Latinos have traditionally lacked access to better health care because of a lack of insurance, deportation fears, and inadequate insurance coverage. The problem makes it highly likely that there could be more unreported COVID-19 cases and deaths in the community. Another reason for the high infection rates among the community is the high occupancy density in their households, air pollution, and high prevalence of other diseases such as heart diseases.

References

Hooper, M. W., Nápoles, A. M., & Pérez-Stable, E. J. (2020). COVID-19 racial/ethnic disparities Jama.https://digitalarchive.worldfishcenter.org/handle/20.500.12348/4258

Rodriguez-Diaz, C. E., Guilamo-Ramos, V., Mena, L., Hall, E., Hermann, B., Crowley, J. S., & Sullivan, P. S. (2020). The risk for COVID-19infection and death among Latinos in the United States: Examining heterogeneity in transmission dynamics Annals of Epidemiology.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1047279720302672

Dorn, A. van, Cooney, R. E., & Sabin, M. L. (2020). COVID-19 exacerbates inequalities in the US. The Lancet, 395(10232), 1243–1244. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30893-x

Zeni, M. B. (2019). Principles of Epidemiology for Advanced Nursing Practice. In Google Books. Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://books.google.com/books?id=WxK2DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_s‌