COVID-19 Special Column: COVID-19 Hits Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Communities the Hardest

摘要

The United Nations warned that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic would disproportionately impact Indigenous peoples across the world because of underlying health inequities and social determinants of health (eg, crowded living conditions and poor access to healthcare) that place them at a greater risk for infection and severe symptoms if infected.1 In the United States (US), public health officials also expected this novel virus to infect Indigenous communities, such as American Indians and Alaska Natives, at a higher rate.2 The rates of COVID-19 positive cases among members of the Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe in the US, are among the highest of any group with 1716 cases in their population of about 300 000.3 This raises the question, what about Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI)?.