'A precarious position': COVID-19 situation for minorities complicated by already higher rates of disease, poverty, virtual panel says

“There’s nothing new, so to speak,” said Cassie Clayton, chief nursing officer for Morton Comprehensive Health Services.

“Whenever you look at the disparities of the people who are impacted by this — people who are not getting health care because of the cost, because of access, for whatever reason — it just highlighted what was already there.”

Clayton, participating Tuesday in a virtual town hall, was joined by Dr. Mousumi Som, OSU Medical Center chief of staff, who agreed that the pandemic simply “magnified” existing problems.

Along with minorities experiencing health problems at higher rates, Som said, add to it the fact “in Oklahoma that 76 or 77 counties are either a health care provider shortage area or medically underserved, and you can see that really does put us in a precarious position.”

The two were part of a five-person panel organized for the latest Tulsa World Let’s Talk virtual town hall.

The forum was hosted by Wayne Greene, editor of the Tulsa World’s editorial pages, and sponsored by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Participants also included Susan Savage, Morton CEO; state Rep. Regina Goodwin; and Francisco Treviño, executive director of Casa de la Cultura and a longtime voice for Tulsa’s Hispanic community.

The entire town hall will be posted online.

The situation for Hispanics is further complicated because of the question of citizenship, Treviño said. He said that of Oklahoma’s 400,000 Hispanics, some 25,000 are undocumented.

“By not providing health insurance to undocumented immigrants, we are creating a public health issue,” he said, adding that it potentially leads to the spread of coronavirus to the wider community.

“And I will remind you,” he said, “that most of the undocumented immigrants have American citizen children that are going to the schools.”

Goodwin said one big step toward helping underserved minority communities would be Medicaid expansion, for which she’s been fighting for years. She is hoping for successful passage June 30 of State Question 802, which puts the issue to a vote.

“When you talk about lack of access, when you talk about preventative care, if you don’t have that insurance and you don’t have the money to just go take care of your basic health, then certainly you’re going to be the No. 1 target for this kind of pandemic,” Goodwin said.

Other complicating factors for minorities during the pandemic include that often they work at “higher public facing occupations” that prevent social distancing, Som said.

“Social distancing, while so, so valuable and so, so important, is a privilege that is not available to everyone across the board,” she added. “And it really is paramount to preventing the spread of this disease.”

Clayton said the pandemic has motivated her and her Morton colleagues in their ongoing mission to help underserved communities.

“We have been open from the very beginning,” she said. “We stay open, we stay here to be able to help people who are vulnerable. We are available and we’re here to help.”

She added: “COVID crosses every color line, every financial line. COVID has touched everyone. It has highlighted that we need to be able to touch everyone and offer health care to everyone.”

Treviño said he hopes that lessons are being learned from the pandemic, including that changes are needed going forward.

“We, the minority communities, live in a world where we are basically invisible to many people,” he said.

“Everybody wants our money, but when it comes to helping our community, everybody turns away.”

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