The Center for Health Journalism has begun offering a special newsletter geared to journalists as they report on one of the biggest and most complex stories of our times. The Coronavirus Files provide tips and resources and highlight exemplary work to help you with your work. The Center for Health Journalism’s Coronavirus Files Monday newsletter is curated and reported by science writer Lindzi Wessel. Have a suggestion or a request? Write us at editor@centerforhealthjournalism.org.
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Sign up for this Wednesday’s Webinar: Covering Coronavirus: The Nursing Home Tragedy
Nursing home and long-term care facilities have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, with an estimated 40% of U.S. deaths tied to these facilities. The dangers facing residents at these homes have been compounded by inadequate testing and protective equipment, coupled with massive staffing turnover and shortages. In this webinar, we’ll look at strategies for reporting on these grave shortcomings. We’ll also learn how to use a ProPublica database of 80,000 nursing home inspection reports detailing fines and infection-control lapses to pinpoint urgent stories about some of your community’s most vulnerable residents. Sign up here for the June 24, 2020 webinar at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET.
The Health Divide & The Road to Recovery
If COVID-19 was killing everyone at the same rate it kills white people, we would have seen about
26% fewer deaths in Los Angeles County, writes Rong-Gong Lin II for The Los Angeles Times. As stunning as that figure is, it should not be surprising when you factor in how health disparities endanger minorities even in normal times, he writes. For black people, for example, as Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told him, “It starts at the beginning of life, when black babies are three to four times more likely to die before they reach their first birthday, and at the very end of life, when black residents die, on average, six to 10 years younger than all others.” The numbers get even worse when you look at those living in areas of high poverty, another disadvantage that disproportionately impacts minorities.
For every 100,000 white residents in L.A. County, there have been 15 COVID-19 deaths, writes Lin. For Latino residents, that number rises to 29 per every 100,000. For black residents, 30.
Estimates from health experts suggest that, in L.A. County, the disproportionate impacts of coronavirus have so far fueled 485 excess deaths among Latinos, 143 excess deaths among blacks, 125 excess deaths among Asian Americans and 981 excess deaths among people living in poverty.
Tackling Health Disparities
In Chicago, where case counts are highest in Latino communities and where “black residents continue to die at a rate two to three times higher than the city's white residents,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot has partnered with community groups to create a
Racial Equity Rapid Response Team, Cheryl Corley reports for National Public Radio. The REERT is meant to tackle “everything from adequate nutrition to jobs to health care,” writes Corley. They’ve passed out free masks, set up a pop-up food pantry, helped make testing more widely available, delivered thousands of postcards with facts about COVID-19 and worked to translate COVID information into other languages.
"We are dying, because we don't have the same resources or access to information,” one source told Corley. The comment reflects a plea echoing around the nation for more help to be sent to minority communities hit hardest by the pandemic.
Surviving is Just Step One
On the surface, the COVID story is a data story. How many total cases? How much does the count grow each day? How many dead? But, of course, like any health issue, this is truly a story of human beings — loved ones lost, communities damaged and lives lived in fear.
A
Washington Post story poignantly reminds us of the human stories behind the numbers zeroing in on Hugo Sosa, a first responder and EMS Captain for whom the pandemic represents a second close brush with death. He triaged casualties a block from the North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, then ran for his life when it fell, writes Post reporter Lenny Bernstein.
Bernstein reminds us that surviving COVID-19 can just be the beginning of what can be a long and uncertain recovery and that many others may need extended medical care. After narrowly escaping death from COVID-19 —44 days in intensive care and 19 on a ventilator —
Sosa is still recovering in a rehabilitation center in New York. During his long battle against coronavirus, Sosa, the son of Ecuadorian immigrants, suffered a stroke. While once he calculated drug doses in his head, Sosa is relearning to walk and count change. He’s also mourning the loss of his mother-in-law, who died quickly when the whole family fell ill with COVID-19. Sosa blames himself for her death.
Finding Remdesivir
Asymptomatic Spread Does Happen, WHO Clarifies
A misstatement by a World Health Organization official ignited a heated debate this week over whether individuals without symptoms can spread coronavirus and what that means for our public health response. If people without symptoms couldn’t spread the disease, it would change a good deal of rationale around social distancing — any two people without symptoms would theoretically be safe to spend time together. But that’s not the case. People without symptoms can spread coronavirus, the organization clarified Tuesday after their original misstatement
threw public discussion around the issue into chaos.
“Studies and models have suggested
many of those infected never show symptoms,” write William Wan and Miriam Bergert for The Washington Post. “It remains an open question whether they are a large force driving transmission.”
Resources
- Scientists around the world have proposed dozens of vaccine candidates for coronavirus. But which ones are most promising and how long will they take to develop? This new vaccine tracker from The New York Times can help you stay up to date.
- Across the country states are reopening without a clear prediction of how drastically this might affect virus spread. Check out ProPublica’s COVID count trajectory map to quickly see how case counts are changing in every state week by week.
- An ongoing challenge to covering coronavirus is dealing with incomplete data. For The Center for Health Journalism, Kathleen McGrory explains how The Tampa Bay Times created their own estimate for death counts in Florida, an approach other reporters can borrow for their own states.
And don't miss...
- “Tear-Gassing Protesters During An Infectious Outbreak ‘A Recipe For Disaster.’” Kaiser Health News
- “Study: Hydroxychloroquine had no benefit for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, possibly closing door to use of drug.” STAT
- “COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months.” The Atlantic
Giving Back
Help us continue to serve journalists and policy leaders with new content we are developing on COVID-19. Your tax-deductible contribution to the Center for Health Journalism will advance our mission of helping journalists investigate health challenges and solutions in their communities –serving as a catalyst for change.
You can donate through the USC web portal at this link: https://bit.ly/3c8d4xs
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