By Shelley Mann-Lev and Justin Garoutte
It is the end of National Public Health Week (April 6-12), and this year, the importance of public health to our community and nation’s well-being has never been more evident in our lifetime.
The New Mexico Public Health Association has been working since its inception over a century ago to strengthen our state’s public health system and to address health equity issues, including racism, poverty and other social determinants of health.
The COVID-19 pandemic likely will follow all-too-familiar lines, with its impact hitting marginalized communities already facing discrimination the hardest. People experiencing homelessness or living in cramped quarters cannot easily maintain physical distance and may experience even greater difficulty obtaining needed food and health care. Intimate partner violence and child abuse will increase due to the mounting stresses and strains on families and relationships.
With schools closed and children stuck at home with few outlets for activity or learning, conditions are ripe for more violence and trauma. And we cannot forget hunger. Before the pandemic, many people in New Mexico suffered from food insecurity and lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables; now, despite community and school efforts to meet the needs of children, adults and seniors, hunger sits at many doors.
With more businesses shut down and people laid off from work, homelessness, abuse, hunger and poverty will worsen. When the economy crashes, those with the fewest resources need a stronger safety net and more support to survive.
As public health professionals, we are committed to imagining and fighting for that safety net and support. We know that action is needed, and we cannot act alone. Our association will be working with community allies as the impact of COVID-19 ravages our state to build a stronger safety net built on equity.
We call on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and our state legislators to:
- Pass emergency paid sick leave.
- Ensure everyone has access to a safe quarantine.
- Enact an enforceable moratorium on evictions, foreclosures and termination of public benefits.
- Ensure everyone has safe access to health care, including testing and treatment for COVID-19, without financial barriers.
- Release people vulnerable to COVID-19 and those who do not pose a physical bodily threat from prisons and jails, and release all who are being held in ICE detention centers.
We call on New Mexico’s political leaders to act immediately on these urgent policy recommendations, as people’s health and lives are in the balance. We are monitoring movement on these policies and collaborating with allies to ensure they are enacted.
Looking ahead, the public health association will continue doing everything we can to advocate for policy solutions to ease the suffering of marginalized communities affected by this public health emergency. We also hold the vision that the lessons learned from this crisis will lead to long-term policies that move our state and nation toward greater equity and justice including: universal health care; paid family leave; affordable and healthy housing and food; an end to the era of mass incarceration; and greater public benefits to eliminate poverty. Please join us in working toward this vision.
Shelley Mann-Lev, MPH, and Justin Garoutte, MPH, are policy co-chairs for the New Mexico Public Health Association. Garoutte is from Antonito, a small town in southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and works to advance health equity by building power through policy advocacy at local, state and national levels. Mann-Lev has lived in Santa Fe for over 25 years, working to support the well-being of children and families in the Santa Fe Public Schools and statewide through education and policy.