Problems with Covid Contract Tracing in Immigraton Communities

As you might imagine, significant hurdles exist for Covid contact tracing in immigrant communities. As AP News has reported, “Only a handful of contact tracers working to slow COVID-19 in 125 communities near Chicago speak Spanish, despite significant Hispanic populations.” This is not a Chicago-specific problem. As AP News notes: “In the ZIP code with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Maryland, 56% of adults speak Spanish. But only 60 of Maryland’s 1,350 contact tracers speak Spanish.” That seems problematic.

Beyond issues of language, contact tracing in immigrant communities is also hindered by “confusion and fear of the government.” AP News reports that “in an era of hardline immigration enforcement” many worry about about giving a full account of their comings and goings (and friends) to the government. Fair.

Interestingly, we noted back in May that Ed Kissam and JoAnn Intili of the WKF Giving Fund made a compelling case for “Why Community-Based Case Investigation and Contact Tracing is Crucial.” Too bad the government wasn’t listening.

-KitJ

P.S. My husband (an IP nerd and graphic art fan) thinks I should add that I made the attached graphic using public domain clip art and a copyright-free image from the CDC and I should “own it as having totally rocked it.”