More than 18 months into the pandemic, the Navajo Nation, once the area in the United States hit hardest by COVID-19, is now one of the safest. Back in March 2020, clan members congregated for a social gathering and then returned to their homes in different regions throughout the reservation—many of which are multigenerational. It allowed the virus to take advantage of the tight-knit Navajo community, according to its president, Jonathan Nez.
“At that time, we thought we could stop it,” Nez said. “Once we brought that virus back into the home, it just spread and it took a toll on us. We had to mobilize, and a lot of it was getting out there on social media, getting on the radio and letting people know that the safest place to be was at home.”
The solution, Nez said, has been the community’s prioritization of collective responsibility in its ongoing vaccination efforts.
The Navajo Nation boasts a 72 percent vaccination rate among eligible residents—a benchmark higher than the nationwide rate of nearly 62 percent. Mary Owen, president of the Association of American Indian Physicians and director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health is also worried about the prevailing mental health crisis on the Navajo Nation. Experts say that Indigenous people are at higher risk for mental health problems and financial difficulties due to COVID, which have been exacerbated by social isolation and the nation’s high death rate.
The nation’s leaders, however, are optimistic that the tenacity of their community, passed down over scores of generations of Navajos, will help them overcome the disproportionate effects of the global pandemic.
Read more at TheNation.com.
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