Virus testing scarce among state’s Marshallese

FAYETTEVILLE — Little testing for covid-19 goes on within the state’s Marshallese population despite social practices that make the group particularly vulnerable, one of the state’s leading authorities on the community’s health said.

Many Marshallese in Arkansas must pay for testing out of their own pockets, said Dr. Sheldon Riklon, a researcher at the Northwest Campus of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences who also works as a family practice doctor at Community Clinic, a nonprofit organization based in Springdale.

Even those who haven’t lost their jobs as the pandemic closes businesses are worried they will, he said.

Marshallese are free to travel to the United States under a compact between the two governments. Adult islanders living in the United States aren’t eligible for U.S. health care assistance, such as Medicaid, Riklon said.

Riklon said Sunday he knows of no covid-19 cases among the islanders’ estimated population of 14,000 in Northwest Arkansas and areas close by, he said.

The Marshallese population in general has two risks particular to the disease, he said. First, they are a community-oriented group. Large gatherings are common. The social distancing guidelines used to control the spread of the disease are a drastic cultural shift, although the response to warnings so far has been surprisingly good, he said.

Second, Marshallese have a high propensity for underlying conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, making them vulnerable if the outbreak takes hold among them.

Another problem is getting warnings and other needed medical information translated into the Marshallese native language. Groups found once such material is translated, the need to update them is still a problem, he said.

Spanish speakers face the same kind of difficulties, although the situation among

that group is getting better, Hispanic leaders said.

“It was challenging because we’re a collectivist culture,” said Riklon, who is Marshallese, about social distancing. “Anything we do is festive.”

Their close-knit society was able to adapt quickly, he said. Hopefully that reaction was in time. The close social connections proved useful in getting the word out quickly, he said.

Few in the Marshallese community used social media before because there was little need to, Riklon said. They enjoyed so much face-to-face contact. They learned to use social media quickly and are enjoying it, he said.

“They love Facebook now,” he said. “It lets them keep up with people they know in De Queen, other parts of southwest Arkansas and in Jonesboro.”

Melisa Laelan is chief executive director and founder of the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese. She said local leaders, such as mayors and church leaders, recognized the threat. Their warnings were a big factor in getting Marshallese to take the threat seriously.

Still, breaking central social ties to large gatherings isn’t easy, she said.

“The kids are bored out of their minds,” Laelan said.

Efforts to keep the disease from their community seem to be working well. The concern is shifting to getting the most vulnerable members enough to eat, Laelan said. Her group and others cooperating in an assistance task force are coping with having to distribute food while not being a possible transmission route for the disease. Volunteers wear face masks and gloves along with practicing other precautions, she said.

Smaller churches meeting strictly observe the 6-foot social distancing recommendation, but most have gone to virtual services with households by computer link, Laelan said. One church is considering a drive-in service, she said. Churchgoers would drive to the church parking lot, like a drive-in movie theater.

Spanish speakers, particularly migrants, are getting better information from state sources than at the beginning of the outbreak, said Mireya Reith, founder of the immigrants rights advocacy group Arkansas United. Anti-pandemic information translated from English is getting a slow roll-out, she said.

A new risk of disease exposure is taking place now, she said.

“It’s planting season,” she said. Seasonal farm workers are coming to Arkansas.

Spanish speakers in the state need no introduction to social media, said Maricella Garcia, multicultural liaison for Little Rock. Garcia said Twitter and texting are heavily used by younger Spanish speakers.

While the disease outbreak is a threat to anyone, the economic impact of the related shutdown is hitting the small businesses of the Spanish-speaking community particularly hard, Reith said. Many of those business, such as restaurants, depend on customers dining in or other purchases made indoors and in person, she said.

Rey Hernandez of Rogers is president of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC. He said Monday most of the relevant information to respond to the pandemic is available in Spanish and English.

Schools that have distributed laptops to students without computers at home are appreciated, Hernandez said. He also speculated undocumented workers in particular will be hardest hit by the pandemic, being unable to apply for unemployment benefits.

He also said Hispanics, like Marshallese, “have higher rates of diabetes and are likely to suffer greater rates of mortality if covid-19 hits those populations.”