COVID-19 Impact on Vulnerable Populations

The COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to the general population of the United States and other countries. It has become increasingly clear, however, that some of the population is more vulnerable than others. This is in addition to the generally understood most vulnerable population, those who are age 65+.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to the general population of the United States and other countries. It has become increasingly clear, however, that some of the population is more vulnerable than others. This is in addition to the generally understood most vulnerable population to COVID-19, those who are age 65+. We now know that older people living in nursing homes are especially vulnerable to infection, serious illness and death, according for 40% or more of the total American COVID-19 deaths through June 2020.

In addition, other populations who are living in close congregate environments, including jails and prisons and assisted living facilities, are uniquely vulnerable populations and few policy interventions have been attempted so far to reduce the threat to them materially. We are using this site to post information on these populations and to provide critiques of policy responses designed to increase their safety.

Important Links

• Judge orders Oregon inmates to be prioritized for vaccine (AP News)
• Line cooks, agriculture workers at highest risk of COVID-19 death: study (The Hill)
• Data Reveals Dramatic Gap Between COVID Vaccinations and COVID Deaths Among Latinos in L.A. County (Capital & Main)
• Communities of color getting left behind in vaccine rollout (The Hill)
• The Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story Unemployment statistics can’t capture the full extent of what women have lost. (The Cut)
• Racial disparities in Covid-19 are bad. They’re even worse in cancer (STAT)
• High-Poverty Neighborhoods Bear the Brunt of COVID’s Scourge (KHN)
• Female Workers Could Take Another Pandemic Hit: To Their Retirements (The New York Times)
• A State-by-State Look at Coronavirus in Prisons (The Marshall Project)
• Developmental Disabilities Heighten Risk of Covid Death (The New York Times)
• Hard Lives Made Harder by COVID: Homeless Endure a ‘Slow-Moving Train Wreck’ (KHN)
• Lifetime Experiences Help Older Adults Build Resilience to Pandemic Trauma (KHN)
• Virus’s unseen hot zone: The American farm (The Washington Post)
• ‘No access’: Poor, isolated and forgotten, kids of 32304 see their health care compromised (Tallahassee Democrat)
• Housekeepers Face a Disaster Generations in the Making (The New York Times)
• The Virus Is Killing Young Floridians. Race Is a Big Factor. (The New York Times)
• Congress needs to give support to the most vulnerable amid COVID pandemic | Opinion (Miami Herald)
• Analysis of Epic Electronic Health Record Data Shows People of Color Fare Worse than White Patients at Every Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Including Higher Rates of Infection, Hospitalization and Death (KFF)
• Emails Show the Meatpacking Industry Drafted an Executive Order to Keep Plants Open (ProPublica)
• Provide seniors the flexibility and coverage they need and deserve (The Hill)
• Congress must protect kidney disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (The Hill)
• How the Aging Immune System Makes Older People Vulnerable to Covid-19 (The New York Times)
• Act now or coronavirus will sentence more prisoners to death, say experts (The Guardian)
• Why Black Aging Matters, Too (KHN)
• Undocumented People With No Health Insurance Struggle Especially Hard From COVID-19 (wbur)
• They Cared for Some of New York’s Most Vulnerable Communities. Then 12 Died. (KHN)
• Duckworth: Republicans gut Americans with Disabilities Act in coronavirus relief bill (USA Today)
• Coronavirus Florida: Editorial: DeSantis’ response to COVID-19 spread in state prisons still disappointing (The Palm Beach Post)
• State prisons: FL lawmakers intensify calls for low-security inmate releases as death toll hits 75 (Florida Phoenix)
• Having cancer and coronavirus is a dangerous combination, studies show (nola)
• A State-by-State Look at Coronavirus in Prisons (The Marshall Project)
• Duckworth: Republican coronavirus package would ‘gut’ Americans With Disabilities Act (The Hill)
• Health workers, especially minorities, at high risk for COVID, even with PPE (CIDRAP)
• What Seniors Can Expect as Their New Normal in a Post-Vaccine World (KHN)
• How the Pandemic Hit Americans: Selective in Its Impact, the Virus Has Struck the Homeless Hard (Portside)
• COVID-19 is quietly ravaging the LGBTQ community (The Hill)
• About half of California prison inmates killed by COVID-19 were disabled, advocates say (The Sacramento Bee)
• US prison inmates among those hit hard with COVID-19 (CIDRAP)
• 7 prisoners with coronavirus died at San Quentin and hundreds more are dying in US jails and prisons (CNN)
• Coronavirus deaths and infection rates higher in US prisons than general population, analysis finds (CNN)
• Florida’s Coronavirus Spike is Ravaging Migrant Farmworkers (The New York Times)
• Pandemic Upends The Lives Of People With Disabilities — And Of Their Caregivers (KHN)
• As COVID-19 Spreads In Prisons, Lockdowns Spark Fear Of More Solitary Confinement (NPR)
• Pandemic Hits Forgotten Profession: Special-Needs Careworkers (The Wall Street Journal)
• Thousands sick from COVID-19 in homes for the disabled (AP News)
• COVID-19 Infections And Deaths Are Higher Among Those With Intellectual Disabilities (wbur)
• The intellectual disability community needs COVID tracking (The Hill)
• Native communities have been hit hard by COVID-19 — and fear for their survival (PBS)
• As Covid-19 tears through Navajo Nation, young people step up to protect their elders (STAT)
• Stopping covid-19 behind bars was an achievable moral imperative. We failed (The Washington Post)

Image courtesy of Getty Images / Thierry Roge