Tom Udall: “COVID-19 has taken a wrecking ball to our Nation's health and economy. No corner of the United States has been spared.…”

“COVID-19 has taken a wrecking ball to our Nation's health and economy. No corner of the United States has been spared. Communities of color are being hit the hardest. We here in Congress must focus our work on helping these communities. We must take on the longstanding systemic reasons that these communities entering this crisis are entering at a greater risk. We must enact real reform so that the next time the next pandemic or economic downturn hits, it is not these same communities that once again bear the brunt of the disaster. Today, I want to focus our attention on American Indian and Alaska Native communities--communities where infection and mortality rates are much higher than the overall U.S. population and communities that can't escape the economic hardships this pandemic has caused. We already knew that pandemics like this take an awful toll on Native communities. This was true 100 years ago during the 1918 flu pandemic when Native Americans died at four times the rate of the rest of the country. This was true a decade ago during the 2019 H1N1 outbreak when Native Americans died at the same high rates. It is unforgivable that the administration was not better prepared. The underlying reasons that Native peoples--whether living on Tribal lands, in urban settings, or elsewhere--are at risk are multifaceted. They are all rooted in historic systemic injustice.…”