Essay Sample on COVID-19: A Highly Infectious Disease Ravaging the World

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a newly discovered and highly infectious disease that is ravaging across the world. Once infected, one will depict symptoms such as moderate or mild respiratory sickness and luckily recuperate without any special treatment. Most people with diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases are highly at risk of developing complications once infected by the novel disease. The disease spreads through various ways but mainly through nose discharge by sneezing or coughing and the saliva droplets from an infected person. (Brooks, 2020). The measures to protect and prevent the spread are through the use of alcohol-based rub, washing of hands with soap, and avoid touching one's face or nose. One should exercise respiratory discipline by coughing on a flexed elbow, as currently, there is no specific vaccine that can cure the novel disease.

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The paper discusses the effects of coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic on African Americans, Latinos, and illegal immigrants. It then discusses ways of providing a culturally competent practice to all the three groups during this time of coronavirus crisis.

Effect on African Americans

The novel disease coronavirus is deeply affecting the African American society in urban centers across the United States. The treatment by the health institutions has devasted the community, therefore, fueling the spiking number of deaths being experienced. According to the centers for disease control(C.D.C), almost one-third of the recorded infections across every state, county, and cities are black Americans, therefore, making the effect of the virus on the black community very inconsistent and astonishing even though the black community represents on 13 percent of the total U.S population (Brooks, 2020). According to analysis, one-third of the people who have died across the United States are from the African American community. In some places, the deaths of African Americans are very high, like in Wisconsin, the deaths from COVID-19 among blacks is high at thirty-six percent, though they the black are about 6.7 percent of the total State population. Also, about 71 percent of deaths in Shelby County, Tennessee, including Memphis, are the African Americans, and they make half of the population in that county (Brooks, 2020).

Most African Americans are suffering from the virus because the jobs they have, the environment they live, the way they are treated, and the prevalence of various health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure have established a toxic storm of death and severe illness to the race. The situation is worse in that; African Americans lack social health determinants that are looked to keep people in good health. The community is dealing with several issues ranging from poverty, systematic racism, education, to socio-economic issues, which creates a health disparity that triggers a rising number of deaths in the community. The other factors that contribute to the rising coronavirus deaths among African Americans are the close-knit of friends, church, and family in the black community, together with overcrowding in homes and urban areas where space is shared by multiple generations.

Effect on Latinos

Several factors make Latino more vulnerable to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. About 40 percent of Latino individuals see the virus as a threat to their health, which is twice the rate of white individuals who view the virus as a threat. The common thing about Latinos is that they do not offer telework options as they need their physical presence in their jobs. The Latinos who telework according to the Economic Policy Center are only 16.2 percent, compared to a high number of 37 percent Asian Americans who telework, 30 percent White Americans, and 19.7 percent African Americans (Despres, 2020). Latinos whether immigrant or naturalized citizens mostly work in jobs of low pay such as domestic worker which mostly results in contacts with people and do not receive benefits like paid seek leave. Through their kind of jobs, they are more likely to contact the coronavirus compared to other communities who work at home, and when they become ill, they mostly lose their jobs, and it then becomes hard to pay bills and rent.

According to Despres (2020), the virus has disproportionately affected the Latino community. For example, in Utah, the Latinos are only 13.9 percent, but the COVID-19 cases on Latinos as of April 28 were 35.6 percent. In Oregon, Latinos are 13 percent, but they make up 26 percent of the cases as of April 27. Latinos in Washington is 13 percent, but out of all cases, Latinos is 29 percent. In the death rate, the Latinos as of April 28 make up a total of 16.5 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the entire country (Despres, 2020). All cases and deaths in the Latino community mean that they face a heavy burden of the virus and are highly exposed to the pandemic as essential workers. It also means that Latinos suffer from inequalities in access to food, income, and access to health care.

Effect on Illegal Immigrants

These are individuals who are most vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 as they lack protection in the places they work. The face restricted access to several safety programs, they are ineligible to insurance given to unemployed persons, and they receive low payments. Many illegal immigrants across the country, regardless of their employment status, are mostly afraid to seek medical care and visit food banks as they fear being detained. The act increased the risk of the COVID-19 to spread within their families. The immigrants who have been detained in the United States at this time are at high risk of contracting the virus as the detention centers are overcrowded, and health officials d not follow the centers for control guidance on handwashing and social distance.

Some news has shown that the detention centers lack essential nutrients, have food of poor quality, and hunger is making the immune system of the immigrants weak, posing a high risk to the virus illness and death. The pandemic has triggered anxiety, especially illegal immigrants. The effect has been exacerbated to a large extend by the fear of suspension on immigration benefits and immigration enforcement, as the immigrants are not represented in critical occupations on the war against the virus from the food services to delivery workers, health care, elder care, and daycare.

Culturally Competent Practice to Assist the Groups During COVID-19 Crisis

To assist the three groups in dealing with the virus, the response plan of COVID-19 should focus on the wide range of inequalities that the groups face compared to the White Americans. The government and other involved in assisting the groups during the current crisis should first understand through identification and addressing the diverse needs of the three groups by incorporating cultural competence plans and preparations, which first focuses on the inequalities in health and other situations that the groups encounter (sue et al., 2015). There is a need to identify both the formal and informal resources of each group that enables in meeting their diverse health needs at this time. Currently, the crisis response team in the country have to know that the survivors from the groups react and at the same time recover within the context of their backgrounds, values, and viewpoints and the customs of dealing with the loss, healing, and trauma caused by the virus together with behaviors involving seeking of help vary from the three groups in comparison with the White Americans due to different cultures.

The culture of African Americans teaches them to tough out a crisis and hide their suffering, especially at a time like the current COVID-19 pandemic. After understanding the culture, the African Americans, the crisis response team has to take into consideration to make sure none of the community members suffer in silence. The providers of resources and different assistance to the families of African Americans should continually put effort into being available and able to work efficiently within the context of the community members, including the already affected patients and families (sue et al., 2015). The culturally competent practices to the group require the providers to integrate cultural knowledge, awareness, encounters, and skill to care for the African Americans COVID-19 victims and their family members. The response team must consider the possibility of racism and have to treat each member of the group as a unique human who deserves proper services and care ay this challenging time. A sound educational base has to be obtained concerning African Americans. In the cultural competence practices, more focus should be addressed on issues such as the beliefs of the community on health care, the beliefs on prevalence and incidence of diseases together with treatment efficacy of diseases according to them.

For Latinos, to offer culturally competent care during the current coronavirus crisis, it is essential to understand the Latino culture, which includes decision making that centers on family than autonomy or individual-based, and it is embraced by the current mainstream United States biomedical culture. The individual's good in the Latino community cannot be separated from the community as the family can play a significant role in empowering and supporting the patients of the virus within the medical setting (sue et al., 2015). To attend to Latino patients who suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic, support should come from the family members so that the patients feel cared for. The generalizations are the starting point that calls practitioners and response teams to look keenly into the Latinos' cultural contours of patients' requests and actions.

Culturally competent care for illegal immigrants in the time of coronavirus increases the effectiveness of providers and response team in meeting the needs of the immigrants (sue et al., 2015). Despite their illegal presence in the country, there is a need to offer primary care to the patients and their families through understanding the context of the immigrant's experience and their emotional and physical sequelae. The response team and health care providers should provide services to the immigrants via efficient utilization of resources without controlling the choices of the immigrants and by observing the way challenges they encounter. The services given to the rest of the immigrants and health services given to the infected patients should be provided within the gender roles, community resources, family structure, and family support systems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, African Americans, Latinos, and illegal immigrants are affected by nearly the same problems of inequalities in health, education, and service provision compared to the White Americans. As a result of the inequalities, the groups have been disproportionally affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic, which leads to a high number of them being infected and killed by the virus across all States. The cultural competence care deserves emphasis as responses team, and health care providers must be more cautious and responsible not to oversimplify customs, beliefs, and values that characterize the ethnic groups like the African Americans and Latinos, together with illegal immigrants in the country. The practices encourage recognition and an open mind that every group sees and interpret the world via their distinct cultural lenses.