Credit: Guardian
Doctors Without Borders has sent a team to help the Navajo Nation battle the coronavirus outbreak in a rare mission within the U.S., the organization confirmed on Tuesday.
Doctors Without Borders spokesman Nico D’Auterive told The Hill that nine professionals were sent to assist the Navajo population in the southwest U.S. in April. The professionals will stay until at least the end of June.
The international group typically sends health professionals to conflict zones around the world during medical disasters, and the coronavirus pandemic marks the first time it has dispatched teams within the U.S.
“At the moment, Doctors Without Borders is focused on providing technical guidance to health care facilities and organizations to assist with infection prevention and control,” D’Auterive said in a statement.
Jean Stowell, the head of the U.S. COVID-19 response team, told CBS News on Monday that the team consists of two physicians, three nurses and midwives, a water sanitation specialist, two logisticians and a health promoter.
“Situationally, the Native American communities are at a much higher risk for complications from COVID-19 and also from community spread […]
As an Arizona resident, I’ve been aware of this for a while. It really says something that we have become a “third world country” so quickly under trumpism, with a the need for humanitarian aid from the developed countries.
I cannot believe that the US government did not protect the Native peoples who are a part of our society, even more than all of “us others” who have come into this land and stolen their way of life as well as their land itself. Most of us are aliens to this country if you take a good look at our ancestry. The Natives to America are the only real Americans, yet they are treated as if they do not belong to our society. I am disgusted by this and are hopeful that D.W.B. can keep the Natives alive and their culture intact.
I want to thank you for bringing this to your subscribers attention.