As COVID Hits Hard In Minority Communities, Concerns Rise About Mental Health And Suicide Risks

AP: Pandemic, Racism Compound Worries About Black Suicide Rate
Jasmin Pierre was 18 when she tried to end her life, overdosing on whatever pills she could find. Diagnosed with depression and anxiety, she survived two more attempts at suicide, which felt like the only way to stop her pain. Years of therapy brought progress, but the 31-year-old Black woman’s journey is now complicated by a combination of stressors hitting simultaneously: isolation during the pandemic, a shortage of mental health care providers and racial trauma inflicted by repeated police killings of Black people. (Tareen, 7/11)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus Death Rate Is Getting Worse In Black Communities
If you’re Black in America, Covid-19 is more likely to kill you, and the disparity has only widened as cases have surged across the U.S. In counties where the majority of residents are Black, the death rate has climbed to 3.5 times the national average, up from roughly three times as high in May, an ongoing analysis of Johns Hopkins University and Census Bureau data by Bloomberg News finds. In places where African Americans exceed 13.4% of the population, the proportion they make up of the U.S., the death rate is double the national average, also a slight uptick from two months ago. (Green and Gu, 7/13)

Stat: Another Covid Disparity: Black And Hispanic Americans Die At Younger Age
Long after calls for more data on the disproportionate number of Covid-19 infections and deaths among Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released limited additional information, which revealed non-white and Hispanic Americans under age 65 are dying in greater numbers than white people in that age group. The agency reported that more than a third of deaths among Hispanic Americans (34.9%) and almost a third of deaths among non-white Americans (29.5%) were in people younger than 65. That compares to 13.2% among white people under that age. (Cooney, 7/10)

Dallas Morning News: How Latino Residents In Dallas’ Hardest Hit ZIP Code Are Weathering COVID-19
As COVID-19 cases soar, the 75211 ZIP code illustrates broader patterns playing out across North Texas. The area is 84% Latino. In Dallas County, more than 60% of those infected are Latinos, though the group comprises only 41% of the population. Texas leads the nation in the most uninsured residents. In Dallas County, those most likely to lack health insurance are Latinos — leading many of them to delay medical care. (Solis and Kuchment, 7/11)

NPR: In Minority Neighborhoods, Knocking On Doors To Stop The Spread Of The Coronavirus 
Around the country, communities of color continue to be among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. So in many of these communities, local leaders are stepping in to try to help solve a problem they say is years in the making. In Richmond, Va., crews of local firefighters and volunteers have been fanning out across the city, going door to door with plastic bags filled with masks, hand sanitizer and information about staying healthy. (McCammon, 7/10)

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer Orders Training For Mich. Health Care Workers To Reduce Bias
Keith Gambrell knows more than he ever wanted to know about the coronavirus pandemic and the racial health disparities it exposed. As a Black man in Detroit, Gambrell, 33, had COVID-19. So did his mother, his brother, his father and grandfather. He says his dad, Gary Fowler, died at age 56 in a recliner in his Grosse Pointe Woods home after being turned away from several metro Detroit hospitals, even though he begged for help and said he could not breathe. (Shamus, 7/10)

In other news on health care disparities and racial justice —

AP: Tear Gas Used On Portland Protesters, 1 Man Injured
Federal law enforcement officers used tear gas and crowd-control munitions on people protesting near Portland’s federal courthouse during a protest that started Saturday night, Portland police said. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that friends and family of a demonstrator say a 26-year-old man was struck in the head and injured by an impact munition fired by authorities. (7/12)

Modern Healthcare: Gender Bias In Surgical Residency Faculty Evaluations May Be Improving
New research suggests progress has been made in efforts to reduce gender bias against female surgical faculty members. An analysis of teaching evaluations conducted by surgical trainees of more than 1,700 faculty members across 21 general surgery residency programs found women faculty scored on average higher than men, receiving 90.6% versus 89.5%. (Johnson, 7/10)

KQED: California Could Release 8,000 State Prisoners By End Of August To Slow Coronavirus Outbreaks
Roughly 8,000 people incarcerated in state prisons in California could be eligible for early release by the end of August, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday. The decision comes amid a devastating COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison and other facilities. Gov. Gavin Newsom and prison officials have faced mounting pressure from advocates, lawmakers and federal judges to slow the spread of the virus by quickly downsizing the state's immense prison population to better enable physical distancing and quarantine efforts. (Green, 7/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Two More San Quentin Prisoners Die From COVID-19
Two San Quentin inmates died Saturday from what appears to be complications with COVID-19, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Sunday, bringing the total number of prisoner deaths at the state prison to nine. The inmates died July 11 at outside hospitals. No additional information is provided to protect individual medical privacy, the department said. (Narayan, 7/12)

Boston Globe: What Is A Homeless Encampment? Don’t Ask Mass. Cities 
When homeless people in Boston set up campsites to shelter themselves, how is the city supposed to respond? Eight months after the mayor’s office released its first draft protocol on dealing with encampments, the policy has yet to be finalized, setting the city up for potential legal risks and leaving unsheltered homeless people on edge about when and how they might be forced to move. (Dalmia, Summer and Mulvihill, 7/12)

Boston Globe: Governor Raimondo Unveils A Plan For The ‘Eviction Pandemic' 
Governor Gina M. Raimondo unveiled a $7 million program during Friday’s news conference to help [Rhode Island] residents who are facing eviction during the coronavirus pandemic. “The public health crisis has led to an economic crisis,” Raimondo said. While there hasn’t been a massive spike in evictions during the pandemic, people are struggling to pay their rent, she said. “I am worried as the $600 benefit from the federal government ends and the economic crisis drags on, this is a crisis that’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Raimondo said. (Milkovits, 7/10)