{"id":19078,"date":"2020-06-03T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2580181"},"modified":"2020-06-03T10:10:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:10:00","slug":"police-violence-will-make-it-harder-to-fight-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/03\/police-violence-will-make-it-harder-to-fight-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Police violence will make it harder to fight COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>Photo by SETH HERALD\/AFP via Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n

Law enforcement’s brutal response to this weekend’s protests may fuel mistrust in the health care system as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to smolder through the country.<\/p>\n

Experts say the danger is especially acute in black communities, which have already been hit hard by the virus, and have historically borne the brunt of discriminatory policing. In the aftermath of the police response to protests, vulnerable communities may be even less likely to trust and cooperate with health officials. That could make it harder to control another wave of illness.<\/p>\n

“This blatant display reminds folks how bad the devaluing of black lives is, at the height of a global pandemic, and it’s certainly going to lead to less willingness to engage in the system,” says Rachel Hardeman, an assistant professor and health equity researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.<\/p>\n

People already feel less willing to engage with contact tracers in the Twin Cities, according to someone with knowledge of the Minnesota COVID-19 response, who asked not to be named because they didn’t have permission to speak with the media. It’s hard to say yet if data would back up that assessment, they told The Verge<\/em>, but anecdotally, people making calls feel like they’re meeting more resistance. Contact tracers identify people with a disease like COVID-19 and figure out who they recently interacted with to stop the virus from spreading. The Minneapolis health department did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Large gatherings like protests already make contact tracing difficult. When people at those gatherings encounter police violence, that task gets harder. People who test positive for the coronavirus may be reluctant to tell health officials if they were at protests because they may worry about retaliation. They might not want to identify people they interacted with at the protests for the same reasons. That’s just one way mistrust makes it difficult for public health officials to track down clusters of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Some statements from officials are only making the problem worse. Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington used public health terminology to describe police work and said that officers are “contact tracing” people who were arrested to find out the groups that they were a part of. The conflation between an important public health activity like contact tracing and investigation of people who have been arrested could make people less likely to trust public healthworkers trying to trace the disease.<\/p>\n

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Caitlin Rivers, PhD<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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\"\u2714\"<\/strong><\/span><\/span>@cmyeaton<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This is not contact tracing! What is described in the video is police work. To see the two linked jeopardizes the credibility of public health, which needs community trust to work effectively. https:\/\/<\/span>twitter.com\/nbcnews\/status\/1266758240018276352 <\/span>…<\/p>\n

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NBC News<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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\"\u2714\"<\/strong><\/span><\/span>@NBCNews<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Replying to @NBCNews<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington says they’ve begun contact tracing arrestees.<\/p>\n

“Who are they associated with? What platforms are they advocating for? … Is this organized crime? … We are in the process right now of building that information network.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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