- In the city of Milwaukee,
Hispanics and Latinos are
now showing the largest
increase in COVID-19 cases.
That marks a turning point from
when the disease was
disproportionately affecting
the city's African-American
community.
The surge of cases is
concentrated on Milwaukee's
south side.
Jeanette Kowalik is Milwaukee's
commissioner of health and she
joined us with her insights.
And thanks so much for being
here.
- Thank you for having me.
- So how disproportionate are
the numbers of positive cases
in the Hispanic community?
- So as of this week now, the
Hispanic or Latinx population
is the majority of the cases in
our city and our county.
At the city level,
the Latinx population accounts
for about 40% of
cases.
At one point in time earlier
in our response,
African-Americans
were basically
like 70% of the cases.
So we definitely
are concerned about this flip
here. And we
started to see
the first hot spot on the south
side, our predominantly
Latinx community
in Milwaukee in
mid April.
So we were working on
increasing outreach and
resources, making things are
not just translated, but
culturally appropriate.
Working with 16th
Street Community Health Center,
which is a solid partner
of the Milwaukee Health Department
and one of our board
of health members also works
for that organization.
And so leveraging that
relationship to really help get
the word out.
And then we received some
funding to assist with
some of the outreach efforts.
So that was used through
the Advancing Healthcare
Wisconsin money, which we still
have. And we're still working
on a variety of outreach
activities and resources.
And then also this
Stronger Together collaborative
which received
funding from the Greater
Milwaukee Foundation to
create a "You Matter" campaign.
So altering the message
from stay home, save lives
or safer at home to
valuing people
of color in our community and
equipping our community
with knowledge and resources
so that they can be resilient
and survive COVID-19.
- So had you determined then
that the messaging was not
culturally appropriate for the
Latinx community and that's
what you went to work on or why
did you determine this was
happening in that community in
particular?
- Well, initially we were
concerned about some of those
sources of those initial
outbreaks that they were
related to employers
or folks being considered
essential and still having
to go to work and still being
exposed to COVID-19
by just going to work, whether
they were taking public
transportation
or, you know, people
are ridesharing or whatever the
case may be.
And then working in settings
that really didn't
support social or physical
distancing, as well
as enhanced cleaning and
hygiene, which created
more opportunities for exposure
for some people in
our Latinx population.
So we started to see
that play out and we were very
concerned
early on and getting the
message out, working with
employers to make sure people
had access to testing.
And then
making sure people also are
aware that there's
federal protections
and resources for sick
time if you are infected
with COVID-10 and how
do you access those things.
We also know that there's been
some barriers that
have been pretty much put up
coming from the national level
all the way down, looking
at immigration.
This anti-immigration sentiment
of working with ICE
to detain
people. And just-- there's a
lot of fear and has
been a lot of fear and
the trust has been eroded in
government.
Our experience at the
Milwaukee Health Department has
been -- we've been seeing a
decline in service utilization
among some of our Latinx
clients over the last
year, year and a half.
So using
other community partners and
letting them lead is really
important now more than ever
because of that trust.
Just by way of nature,
the health department is a
government entity.
So how do we let
others lead and get the message
out, help with the contact
tracing and other resources
that are needed?
We also know that a number of
people in our
Latinx community did not
qualify for the stimulus
payments, which is really
unfortunate. We also
know that there was some of
this public--
you know, if you received
social services that you're
not going to-- that
will compromise your
citizenship.
You know, there's all of these
political or policy
level threats
to being able to provide a more
comprehensive COVID response.
So what are some ways for
us to still impact
the Latinx community in a
positive way, but work
around some of those barriers
that have been set up to cause
more discrimination
and racism among our
Latinx population.
- There's much more to talk
about around this, but we need
to leave it there.
Dr. Kowalik, thank you so much
and thanks for your work.
- Thank you.