The CDC Doesn't Know Enough About Coronavirus In Tribal Nations

Short Wave

NPR

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🗓️ 28 September 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

A recent CDC report estimates Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are 3.5 times more likely to get COVID-19 than white people, and those under 18 are more likely to test positive.

This report is the first time the federal government has released hard numbers on the coronavirus in tribal nations, but it is most notable for what it does not say about how the virus is affecting Native Americans and Alaskan Natives. And some scientists believe that the CDC's current numbers are an underestimate.

Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, reporter and deputy managing editor of Indian Country Today, explains why the CDC data is so limited in scope — and her efforts to bring more data transparency to the table.

Jourdan wrote about the CDC's findings here. Support the work of Indian Country Today here.

Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:06.1	In August, more than five months into the pandemic, Jordan Bennett Begey was about to
0:11.4	see some data she'd been waiting for for a long time.
0:14.9	Yeah, no, truly, I was really excited because there hasn't been any data on American Indians
0:20.7	or Alaska natives since the start of the pandemic from the CDC.
0:25.8	That's right.
0:26.4	Until last month, while universities had released a good bit of data about COVID and its effect
0:32.7	on some Native American and Alaska natives, the CDC really hadn't.
0:38.1	Jordan would know.
0:39.3	She's a reporter and editor with the public media news organization Indian Country today.
0:44.4	She's also a citizen of the Navajo Nation and she's been covering the pandemic since
0:49.1	the beginning as well as a 2020 census and all of Indian country.
0:54.6	No big deal, just all of Indian country.
0:56.5	Oh, yeah.
0:57.5	This is the whole.
0:58.5	That data that she'd been waiting to see was released by the government as part of a
1:04.7	weekly CDC report in mid August.
1:07.8	The title at the top red COVID-19 among American Indian and Alaska native persons in 23 states.
1:15.2	And when I read it, it was kind of already something that I knew and a lot of Native public
1:22.5	health experts already knew.
1:25.7	And what I was really looking for is, you know, what is new that they gave to us.
1:31.2	The report said, because of existing inequities, Native Americans and Alaska natives are 3.5
	...

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