Kevin Carter is making health a priority so he can stay strong for his community. The co-founder of the Poor People’s Campaign in Sacramento is advocating for COVID-19 prevention in communities most at-risk. “I’m 60 years old, I have atrial fibrillation, and I’m a little bit overweight, so I have to pay attention,” explained Carter. “It’s important for the Black and Brown community to make sure that we have health care.” Carter is among several community advocates who pushed for the testing clinic in Oak Park, which is one of six new community testing sites in Sacramento.“Everything is out at Cal Expo and people cannot make it to Cal Expo and we need something in the community,” Carter said. Dr. Jann Murray-García M.P.H. at UC Davis School of Nursing has been devoting her career to closing generations of public health inequities, explaining the lack of access to health care traces back to racial redlining.“That script was written 80 or 90 years ago,” explained Murray-García. “In Sacramento specifically, you had people of color who were pushed to the north and south. And so, places like south Oak Park, Meadowview, and then Del Paso Heights-North Highlands area — those are areas where there are a lot of Latinos and African Americans and high concentrations of poverty.”Those communities are at higher risk of contracting the virus due to a lack of access to health care and economic opportunity. “Black and Latinos tend to be at the bottom in the service areas — so lowest wages, less flexibility, less time off for illness if they have any of that,” said Murray-García. “Ironically, that’s not where the testing was concentrated initially. That’s changed in the last couple of weeks, but it was not those neighborhoods.”The UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities explains these gaps translate to Latinx and Black communities meeting COVID-19 with underlying health conditions. “Meat plants and the service industry, those who are considered essential workers are those who are getting the brunt of the impact, the direct impact, of COVID-19,” explained Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities. “They have chronic diseases at high rates than the rest of the population, diabetes, obesity, hypertension.”Which is why advocates like Carter get tested not only for themselves, but for their community. “We had the opportunity to bring the awareness and wake people up,” Carter said. “To let them know that this is not something that’s just going to go away. You need to pay attention.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Kevin Carter is making health a priority so he can stay strong for his community.
The co-founder of the Poor People’s Campaign in Sacramento is advocating for COVID-19 prevention in communities most at-risk.
“I’m 60 years old, I have atrial fibrillation, and I’m a little bit overweight, so I have to pay attention,” explained Carter. “It’s important for the Black and Brown community to make sure that we have health care.”
Carter is among several community advocates who pushed for the testing clinic in Oak Park, which is one of six new community testing sites in Sacramento.
“Everything is out at Cal Expo and people cannot make it to Cal Expo and we need something in the community,” Carter said.
Dr. Jann Murray-García M.P.H. at UC Davis School of Nursing has been devoting her career to closing generations of public health inequities, explaining the lack of access to health care traces back to racial redlining.
“That script was written 80 or 90 years ago,” explained Murray-García. “In Sacramento specifically, you had people of color who were pushed to the north and south. And so, places like south Oak Park, Meadowview, and then Del Paso Heights-North Highlands area — those are areas where there are a lot of Latinos and African Americans and high concentrations of poverty.”
Those communities are at higher risk of contracting the virus due to a lack of access to health care and economic opportunity.
“Black and Latinos tend to be at the bottom in the service areas — so lowest wages, less flexibility, less time off for illness if they have any of that,” said Murray-García. “Ironically, that’s not where the testing was concentrated initially. That’s changed in the last couple of weeks, but it was not those neighborhoods.”
The UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities explains these gaps translate to Latinx and Black communities meeting COVID-19 with underlying health conditions.
“Meat plants and the service industry, those who are considered essential workers are those who are getting the brunt of the impact, the direct impact, of COVID-19,” explained Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities. “They have chronic diseases at high rates than the rest of the population, diabetes, obesity, hypertension.”
Which is why advocates like Carter get tested not only for themselves, but for their community.
“We had the opportunity to bring the awareness and wake people up,” Carter said. “To let them know that this is not something that’s just going to go away. You need to pay attention.”