Persistent Covid Inequities and Connecting Indigenous Communities

Liza Fisher is getting ready for a busy day. About an hour later, her mother will drive her to the clinic, where she will receive IV fluids and iron to treat the anemia. When the infusion bag is empty, she heads to the acclimatization gym, where she puts on compression pants and teaches a class for the disabled. She will also consult with a therapist familiar with postural tachycardia syndrome, a condition that causes her heart rate to increase when she stands up.

Fisher, who lives in Houston, used to be a sporty flight attendant. Now, her life is consumed by the daily therapy and exercise provided by her mother, a nurse who moved from Ohio to care for her. This has been the case for more than a year after she contracted covid-19 and developed chronic symptoms of long-term covid.

Sadly, Fisher’s case is far from unique. She’s one of many people of color who have long battled COVID-19 — and we’re only just beginning to understand how serious a problem this is. Read the full article.

– Elaine Shirley

Broadband funding for Indigenous communities could finally connect some of America’s most remote places

Rural and Indigenous communities in the U.S. have long had lower cellular and broadband connectivity than urban areas, where four out of five Americans live. Reliable internet service is still hard to come by outside of cities and suburbs that make up just 3 percent of the U.S. land.

For decades, people living in places like the Blackfeet Indian Reservation had to grapple with the low bandwidth offered over outdated copper wiring, or not use it at all.

The covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the problem as Indigenous communities lock down and move schools and other essential daily activities online. But it also sparked an unprecedented surge in relief funding to tackle the problem. Read the full article.

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