(See the cover letter for more):
Tribal communities like the Navajo Nation have long lived in the shadows, struggling to overcome the many social inequities that lead to the very kind of health disparities that make COVID-19 more lethal.
And so it was hardly a surprise that the virus struck this community so hard. By summer, the reservation of 174,000 people had a higher rate of COVID-related deaths than any U.S. state.
As mainstream media turned its attention to the tragedy, the student journalists of Cronkite News took a different approach – producing a series of stores examining long-standing problems that made this pandemic deadlier for Native Americans, along with grassroots efforts to overcome those obstacles.
Health care journalism should go beyond reporting on the repercussions of disease outbreaks or the ins and outs of access to care and spotlight shortcomings related to housing, infrastructure, education, the environment and food security – those social determinants that are predictors of better health and health equity.
The “COVID in Indian Country” series examined those issues through a solutions journalism lens: Students wrote about the “water warrior” who started an effort to get clean water to far-flung residents, the women who brought food and companionship to vulnerable Navajo elders, the school district fighting to keep students online and engaged, efforts to return to traditional growing practices to increase food security, and providers trying to make telehealth work in a place where only a quarter of homes have broadband internet and fewer than half even have a computer.