On September 23rd, 2020, the Latino Center for Health (LCH) hosted a webinar to raise awareness of the largely hidden disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Latinx communities across Washington State and to amplify community- and state-led response efforts happening in our rural and urban communities.
“The fact that 42% all COVID cases in WA are among Latinos, who are only 13% of the population, is shocking and demands more attention and action,” says Dr. Leo Morales, professor and assistant dean for Health Equity Research in the UW School of Medicine and co-director of the Latino Center for Health. “We hope this webinar will spur decision-makers at the highest levels to respond with targeted policies and resources.”
In preparation for this webinar, LCH convened representatives from different community organizations working with Latinxs to learn about their experiences during the pandemic. We invited a few of these representatives to share their perspectives at a panel discussion during the webinar.
“Since early March of this year, community leaders across the state have come together to identify and help mitigate impacts they knew were going to negatively affect our community, a few examples being emergency financial aid for undocumented individuals, worker safety rules for our farmworkers and other essential workers, and access to culturally and linguistically relevant information. We are lucky to live in a state with accessible and attentive leaders that have done their best to mitigate impacts but we have a long way to erasing inequities in our system, magnified by the pandemic, which have caused so much pain and hardship for our community,” says María Sigüenza, Executive Director of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs.