According to the US Census Bureau, African Americans and Latinos each comprise approximately 30% of Chicago's population.
- The top five local neighborhoods/communities in Chicago for COVID-19 infections are predominantly Spanish-speaking
- In a statistic that one doctor termed "stunning", some 60% of Hispanics who are tested are found to be positive for the coronavirus. The overall average for positive tests among Chicagoans is 20%
Well, living conditions probably have a little bit to do with it. We understand that your governor's wife is down here, riding out the virus (so to speak) in their $12 million equestrian estate with 30 horse barns attached. Lots of room to hang out in, except for staff that can be made to keep their distance. Spanish families, on the other hand, tend to be large and to crowd together in smaller apartments and houses. Living conditions always have a lot to do with the spread of corona virus.
ReplyDelete(For Margaret: The estate is in the town of Wellington, a horsy community where polo is played and watched by British royals. When we first moved here someone suggested we look at buying into Wellington. Yeah. 12 mil. Bill Gates has a place there. So has Bruce Springsteen. Roxanne Pulitzer lives there (I've been to her house, seen her Porsche.) Of course, since we were urged to go out there, the town has grown with less wealthy people, and although the town makes a pretty penny selling its horse manure to more agricultural counties, disputes between riders with horses and people just trying to get to work over the same roads have multiplied through the years. Wellington just isn't what it was. Palm Beach County, btw, has almost twice the area of Rhode Island. We still haven't talked about the sugar cane, Edward R. Murrow's "Harvest of Shame," which is way west of Wellington.)
It doesn't surprise me at all that Latinos are harder hit by the virus. I'm sure that conditions of poverty in some areas have something to do with it. Culture has a lot more to do with it. My next door neighbors moved in recently. There are regularly people coming and going who don't live there. One evening there were eight cars in front of their house. And ours. I don't think they are poor, at least not any poorer than we are. This isn't the best, or the worst, neighborhood. Sort of average. About twenty-five feet separating our houses. Ordinarily I would make an effort to get acquainted; maybe when things get better I will. Meanwhile I'm distancing the heck out of things. But I don't want to turn into a Gladys Kravitz. Maybe I already have!
ReplyDeleteI haven't been able to see my parents since the stay at home order was put into place. One of the hardest things about social distancing is that it applies to extended families. As I understand it, the rule is: if they don't live in your household, they shouldn't visit you, and you shouldn't visit them.
DeleteI had to tell one of our children to stop inviting friends into our home.
I mentioned to my wife that it appeared to me that cases of coronavirus had been spiking a couple of weeks ago. Her theory: Easter. She thinks that people gave themselves a pass from social distancing to celebrate the holiday with extended family. The sentiment is understandable, but its wisdom is questionable.
Out here in the cornfield people think they are impervious. Promiscuous visiting up and down the block as the weather has got nicer. Many are Catholics who will drag their germs into Mass in a couple weeks.
DeleteThe problems with getting compliance in various places are economic, cultural, politival, and religious.
Well, at the Post Office (where I just was) they enforce social distance with yellow lines 6 feet apart. I had to start way back beyond the passport office. But the line moved pretty well because each"step" forward covered six feet.
DeleteEn route, I passed the Public Library, which is closed. But it had a sign out front saying "Free Food" and when it is available. The library is across the street from the entrance to the Trump International Golf Course. Hope they hand out cheeseburgers.
Beautiful day in the Northeast yesterday. Traffic level seemed back to normal. Noisy motorcycle groups all over the place here in the Poconos. I would not recommend going to parks or beaches. It feels so nice outside. How can there be a viral plague?
ReplyDeleteI know! Yesterday was a beautiful, perfect spring day here. It just seemed so normal with flowers blooming and grass greening up, it was hard to believe that an invisible menace was paralyzing the country.
DeleteOkay, yesterday I was being kind of snarky about my Latino neighbors not distancing. Truth is, people in general suck at it. Text conversation with my son a few weeks ago; the kids were all staying in the house or yard, not going near the fence. Conversation Sunday, me: "So how is everyone doing?" Son: " Well, Emma (the oldest) is upstairs doing her homework. The two little girls are outside playing with the neighbor kids." Me, thinking, I don't even want to know. Yeah, a 6 year old and an 8 year old know how to guesstimate 6 feet. Not.
ReplyDeleteI had a physical therapy session yesterday (old, chronic injury, so dull even I can't find the motivation to talk more about it). The problem area has been responding to treatment the last week or so, so my therapist put up her palm, like "High-five!". I should have pointedly stuck out my elbow in response, but I didn't want to be in the position of scolding the therapist - but I should have. Later, she was putting some sort of supportive medical tape on the sore part. Rather than go for scissors to cut off the appropriate length of tape from the roll, she simply pulled her mask down and used her teeth. I don't know if that from-her-mouth-to-my-skin transmission risks infection, but it struck me as a little ... unsafe.
DeleteAnyway, offering these as further illustrations that people suck at social distancing. If social distancing is going to be an ongoing requirement (as seemingly it will), then people are going to need lots of support. For example, movie theaters will need to physically obstruct or remove seats from the theater to force people to sit six feet apart from one another. And if retail establishments want people to wear masks, they'll have to provide cheap disposable masks at the store entrance.
I mentioned somewhere that my wife's theory is that many people gave themselves permission to ignore stay-at-home requirements to celebrate Easter. Mother's Day is Sunday. I'm already hearing from people who are planning to break the rules in order to see mom. In a sense, I don't blame them, because this is hard and life is short. But in another sense, I do blame them. This stuff only works if we do it.
I have to give my dental office credit. They are nice people, and know how to follow protocols without making you feel like a pariah. They resumed practice yesterday, and I got my problem taken care of. As they said, "We're pretty used to taking all these precautions anyway." I said jokingly that I would wear a mask for them, but it would make it kind of hard to work on my teeth.
DeleteAll the bad numbers keep rising. What we've been doing hasn't even stopped the increase, so the plan seems to be that we'll stop what we were doing and loosen up The loosener-in-chief is going out barnstorming tonight after desecrating the Lincoln Memorial.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in Taiwan, they are still taking temperatures, still testing, and the death toll is still... 6. Shows what can happen when the people in charge know what to do and do it.
Also when the people are willing to do a bit of sacrificing for the common good, which also includes their own good.
DeleteOur numbers here blew up, basically overnight. The packing plant thing really bit us in the butt.
Too many people at Kroger and the IGA to venture in. Most wearing masks, but a lot of people = longer time/exposure chances.
ReplyDeleteFinding a lab where I can get my routine blood monitoring this month is turning into a major research project.
My hair is driving me insane, so am taking the barber clippers to it this afternoon. Should be interesting...
A security guard at the Family Dollar in Flint was shot in the head this week for insisting a customer wear a mask. Tempers are running hot ...