Coronavirus outbreak a crisis for Latinos in Stanislaus County. What’s being done?
Nelson Gomez was among the first residents in Stanislaus County to suffer a serious case of coronavirus.
Today, he’s using his radio station to educate fellow members of the Latino community and Spanish-speaking residents about the dangers of COVID-19 illness.
“I was intubated for eight days,” Gomez said. “I was so weak that when I came out of the hospital, I had to use a walker.”
With Latinos accounting for 73 percent of COVID-19 cases in the county, Gomez and his team at La Favorita in Hughson are spreading the word with radio, video and digital messages. It’s part of a county outreach effort that targets 48 percent of the county’s population, urging Latino families to modify behavior and take precautions until there’s a vaccine for the “invisible enemy.”
“We’re saying this is impacting us and let’s make sure we’re all trying to cooperate by wearing masks and keeping social distance,” Gomez said.
The attorney and business owner, who rarely gets sick, came down with fever, chills and severe headaches in late March, when the coronavirus was still new to the county, and then lost his sense of taste and smell. He lost about 30 pounds before the illness ran its course.
Gomez, 62, was placed on a ventilator in the hospital when his oxygen saturation became dangerously low. He credits his recovery to personalized care from intensive care physicians, who were not as busy then, plus the prayers and thoughts from family conveyed to him by staff.
Hospital ICUs in Stanislaus County are now packed and many of the hospitalized COVID-19 patients are Latino.
Gomez points to economic and cultural factors to explain the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Hispanic people here and in other parts of California. A large number work in agriculture, food processing and service jobs that can’t be performed remotely at home and require standing side-by-side with co-workers.
Lower incomes force many to live in smaller homes with family members from different generations; in addition, the family oriented Latino culture favors social gatherings.
The DJs at La Favorita talk with listeners about arranging fewer visits with uncles or cousins for the safety of older family members or those with health conditions like diabetes. Families are advised to limit gatherings or socialize in smaller groups outside the home while wearing face coverings and keeping 6 feet apart, Gomez said.
Gomez pointed out that teenagers and young adults may resist wearing a face mask because they feel invincible. “We are trying to tell them it may not affect you but a mask is a sign of caring about your grandparents,” Gomez said.
A Spanish country music station, KBYN 95.9 FM, has a broad reach in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, with a million Facebook followers and half a million web page visitors every month.
Nelson said tens of thousands of people have viewed the COVID messages on social media in recent weeks. But only time will tell if cases flatten out.
COVID-19 continues to surge in Stanislaus County
The county reports a continual march of new coronavirus cases, including a two-day total of 619 new cases Thursday and Friday and 10 additional deaths, bringing the total to 86.
Royjindar Singh, a spokesman for the county’s emergency operations center, said the county is also taking education to neighborhoods by setting up information booths at health clinics and family resource centers.
He added that public health staff will start doing Facebook Live updates in English and Spanish on the Stanemergency page. The county is also looking at coordinating with community groups to build trust so people cooperate with contact tracing.
Some believe that state and county strategies for controlling the outbreak have mostly focused on middle class people, while overlooking a root cause of many coronavirus cases. How does closing indoor dining at restaurants on McHenry and Standiford avenues reduce the rapid spread of coronavirus in west and south Modesto neighborhoods where more than 1,000 cases have been reported?
The Public Policy Institute of California, in a July 17 blog, said counties in the San Joaquin Valley since June have seen a dramatic rise in COVID hospitalizations, a surge that’s pushed hospital ICUs to the limit in Stanislaus County.
The inland region has less hospital capacity than the big cities on the coast, as well as a large Latino population that’s vulnerable to the disease.
In California, Latinos are 36 percent of the state’s population but account for 44 percent of deaths from COVID-19. The PPIC starkly noted that two-thirds of California residents age 50 to 64 who have died in the pandemic were Latino. Mortality is split 43 percent Latino and 45 percent white in Stanislaus County.
Some advocates are calling for more attention on worker safety and the role of workplace outbreaks in spreading coronavirus in the Valley.
UC Merced study considers toll on low-wage workers
A policy brief by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center this month concluded that low-wage work is associated with coronavirus spread in counties inundated by cases like Stanislaus, Fresno and Tulare.
“It is not enough to simply regulate business openings and public gatherings,” the authors wrote, adding that policymakers need to improve health and safety measures for fieldworkers and people on production lines, as well as provide a safety net for workers who test positive.
The authors suggest a clearer picture of the outbreak in Valley counties would emerge if local health departments reported coronavirus cases by industry and worksite.
“The policies we have in place do very little to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in places where essential workers are in close quarters,” said Edward Orozco Flores, a faculty affiliate who co-authored the UC Merced study.
The UC Merced center concluded that “worker distress”, experienced by people earning less than a living wage, was prevalent in 80 percent of counties that are on the state’s COVID-19 watch list. Counties were placed on the watch list for failing to keep cases in check after businesses reopened in May and June.
More affluent counties not marked by distressed workers were primarily keeping positive test rates below 8 percent, the study found.
In Stanislaus and 10 other counties, where more than 30 percent of wage earners struggle to pay bills, the average household size is larger than the state average of 2.7, creating the fertile conditions for COVID-19 spread in households where essential workers live.
In the zip code area (west and south Modesto) with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in Stanislaus County, the median income is $31,551 and average occupancy is four people to a home.
Flores said low-wage workers in agriculture, food services and warehousing don’t have access to federal paid sick leave if they test positive and need to quarantine. Undocumented workers, who are not eligible for unemployment benefits, may be driven by desperation to keep working with symptoms.
Gov. Gavin Newsom created a $75 million assistance fund for workers sidelined by coronavirus, but undocumented people reportedly have been unable to apply for the aid, Flores said.
Noe Paramo of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation said the group asked county supervisors May 12 for a containment plan to address the disproportionate impacts on Latino communities, through testing and effective contact tracing. The group in June recommended the use of CARES Act funds to support community groups in working with immigrants, farmworkers and communities of color.
The recommendations included relief for workers who test positive, support for families and youth and hiring people with community ties for contract tracing.
Paramo said the county doesn’t have a containment plan. Since May, Latino cases have grown from 63 percent of the county total to 73 percent.
He said the Latino community by and large recognizes the dangers of COVID-19 and people want to protect their families. “They understand the consequences,” Paramo said. “But an essential worker has to go to work and not a lot has been done for their protection.”
Singh, the county spokesman, said he knows of no plans to release case data on infected workers by industry or workplace. “I don’t know what it would take to do that,” he said Thursday.
The only recent explanation for the sustained growth in cases since June, averaging 232 per day in the past week, are family clusters, Singh said.
Supervisor Terry Withrow said the county is cognizant of workplace safety. He said many Hispanic workers don’t have the luxury of sheltering at home and the county could consider other ways of supporting them, such as extending an eviction moratorium.
Ag Commissioner distributes masks to farmworkers
The county’s effort to protect some 15,000 agricultural workers comes from the Ag Commissioner’s office, which distributed 235,000 cloth masks to farmworkers. The masks were delivered to migrant centers; in addition, large growers and labor contractors picked them up to distribute to employees.
Tom Orvis, governmental affairs director for the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau, said he was aware of Cal OSHA conducting spot safety inspections at agricultural businesses earlier this month. He said organizations that assist growers started in the spring providing safety information on protecting workers from the coronavirus.
“I assume (growers) are using the resources provided and are following through,” Orvis said. “Agriculture is like any other business. We are not going to get much done without a workforce that’s healthy.”
Karina Franco, a community activist who runs the West Turlock Neighborhood Facebook page, said she wants to see more attention on worker safety. Last week, she posted a request for help for an Hispanic family that lost a mother to coronavirus, leaving a spouse and six children who are in quarantine.
The surviving husband is not eligible for financial assistance due to immigration status, the post said.
“We are in a crisis and it’s not being addressed by anyone in local leadership,” Franco said. “When you have mixed messages, you are not targeting the community with information and it results in suffering.”
Ashley Jimenez is a freelance reporter in Modesto.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Coronavirus outbreak a crisis for Latinos in Stanislaus County. What’s being done?."
