High-risk groups get expanded test access
New National Guard sites open for testing soon
All African Americans, Latinos and tribal community members in Wisconsin will have access to free COVID-19 testing under a plan announced Thursday by Gov. Tony Evers.
Evers’ plan is an effort to combat the staggering racial and ethnic disparities Wisconsin and many other states are facing when it comes to COVID-19 cases and deaths.
African Americans and Latinos account for about half of all coronavirus cases in Wisconsin. Latinos make up less than 7% of the state’s population,
but account for 29% of the COVID-19 cases. African Americans make up only about 6% of Wisconsin’s total population but account for 21% of the confirmed cases statewide.
Thirty percent of Wisconsinites who’ve died after contracting COVID-19 are African American.
“These disparities existed before this pandemic. But what we can do in this present circumstance is we have to, have to, have to test more people,” Evers said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. “In order for us to do the best job possible serving the disadvantaged groups in this state who are disproportionately impacted by this virus, we have to test more.”
The free testing is being conducted by Wisconsin National Guard members at community testing sites throughout the state. Testing sites on the north and south sides of Milwaukee are expected to open in the next few days, officials say.
Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms can get a free test at those sites.
Individuals in high risk racial and ethnic groups, including African Americans, Latinos and tribal community members, will now be able to get a free test at those sites, regardless of whether they are having symptoms.
“We can bend the curve on this if we test more,” Evers said. “Is that going to solve economic disparities? No. But hopefully, it’s going to save some lives. That’s the critical thing right now.”
Essential workers at risk
For some Wisconsinites, staying home rather than heading to work is a luxury that’s out of reach.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore said many essential workers can’t do their jobs from home, and some rely on public transportation to get to work.
“It’s a blessing if you’re able to get on your laptop and buy back your shares for a living,” Moore said. “We certainly need to respect everybody who’s out there on the front lines really taking all the risks.”
Clusters of COVID-19 cases emerged early amid the pandemic in African American neighborhoods on Milwaukee’s north side, northwest side and
Sherman Park. As of Thursday, Milwaukee County data showed there were 1,490 cases in the African American community, or about 40% of the county’s cases. African Americans are about 27% of the county’s population.
More recently, spikes in coronavirus cases have been reported in largely Latino neighborhoods on the city’s south side. As of Thursday, 828 of the county’s 3,685 cases, or about 22%, were in the Latino community in the county, despite being about 15% of the county’s population, according to county figures.
“The truth is that Latinos, I would say we’re overrepresented in the food industry and other industries where we would be deemed essential workers,” said Milwaukee Alderwoman and state Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa. “Most Latinos aren’t as privileged as I to get to stay home and work virtually and remotely and participate in Zoom meetings and conference calls all day.”
It’s imperative, she said, that employers make sure there are safeguards in place for essential workers and that government communicates information in multiple languages.
Zamarripa represents a portion of Milwaukee’s south side, home to many employees of the Patrick Cudahy/ Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant that has seen a rash of COVID-19 cases.
She has been incensed by what she and two other south side Common Council members described as a slow reaction and silence from the plant and the City of Cudahy. The city and company wouldn’t release the number of workers who had tested positive for the virus for more than a week.
Cudahy Mayor Thomas Pavlic said in an email to the Journal Sentinel that the city’s Health Department was empowered to do what is reasonable and necessary to prevent and suppress disease and that the “extensive testing effort” required cooperation from a number of stakeholders.
“This recently concluded testing program required involvement of (the state Department of Health Services), (national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), National Guard, Smithfield management, and the Smithfield union, to advertise, encourage participation, and make available free voluntary testing of all Smithfield employees at their workplace,” he wrote.
In a statement Smithfield Foods said it is focused on employees’ health and safety and that it adheres to federal guidance as a minimum standard.
Workers told the Journal Sentinel they learned their colleagues had tested positive for the virus from other coworkers rather than from the company and that the company only began putting COVID-19 safety measures in place after a number of workers had tested positive.
“I can’t help as a Latino Wisconsinite to feel they were treated so poorly in part because perhaps they were looked at as second-class citizens as they were largely black and brown workers,” Zamarripa said.
Zamarripa worries that the Latino community could be dealing with the same disproportionate impact that began earlier in the pandemic in the African American community.
Both communities experience economic challenges, like working lowerwage jobs without benefits such as paid sick leave. African Americans and Latinos are also less likely to have health insurance and more likely to be underinsured if they do have it, with higher deductibles and co-pays. Poverty and housing density can also be factors.
Julie Willems Van Dijk, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health. Services, said officials see the meatpacking industry — which has seen a series of outbreaks in Green Bay, Milwaukee and communities around the country — as a contributing factor to the disparate effect on the Latino community.
“We do not have evidence in that particular case that it’s because you’re Latinx,” she said. “It’s not like there’s some genetic reason with being Latinx. It is because of the disproportionate number of people of that ethnicity working in that high-risk setting that is what is putting people at risk.”
“Anybody who is in an essential business who is in contact with other people is going to be at risk,” she said.
She added that officials have also done “several” outbreak investigations at farms.
“This is a rapidly evolving situation, and so whatever happens today can be very different tomorrow, and we can’t tell you that all of the farms that we don’t know about are all OK,” she said.
Root causes
Officials have been working to boost testing, investigate outbreaks and track those who have come into contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19, a practice known as contact tracing.
They’ve launched community outreach efforts, particularly in communities that are experiencing outbreaks, including African American neighborhoods on Milwaukee’s north side and among Latinos living on the south side as well as in the Green Bay area.
But they’re also finding that COVID-19 exploits racial and ethnic disparities that have existed long before the outbreak began.
“COVID-19 really just is an amplifier of all kinds of disparities,” Moore said. “My answer to those folks who say, ‘Is COVID-19 racist?’ is ‘No, it’s not racist. But it is opportunistic, and when it sees vulnerability, it strikes.’ ”
Experts have found higher rates of complications in patients over 60, especially those with chronic medical conditions.
That makes the virus particularly dangerous for African Americans as a population, who have higher rates of chronic illness, greater co-occurrence of illnesses — meaning they are more likely to have diabetes and high blood pressure, for example — and tend to develop those illnesses earlier in life.
Wisconsin isn’t alone
Wisconsin’s racial disparities linked to coronavirus are stark, but the state is not alone in this troubling trend.
Although it is too early to determine the full magnitude of racial inequities, many of the largest coronavirus outbreaks have occurred areas with large low-income and diverse communities.
Previous research — including studies of the impact of H1N1 flu — has led experts to conclude minority communities will be more affected by coronavirus. But when it comes to the coronavirus, complete statistics have been elusive.
Democratic members of Congress, including Wisconsin’s Moore, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Reps. Mark Pocan and Ron Kind, have called on federal officials to monitor and address racial disparities in nation’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and make that information publicly available.
Without complete demographic data, policymakers and researchers will not have information necessary to stop the escalating impact of coronavirus, the lawmakers warn.