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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap: break-word;-webkit-nbsp-mode: space;-webkit-line-break: after-white-space'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Anyone have immediate access to Dr. Miller, hospital head until Adventist takes over the end of the month? How is the hospital, MCDH, preparing for the possibility of an onslaught of contagious patients, including local homeless folks?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>A more important question: How can Occupy help? Ideas welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> occupymendocino-bounces@lists.mcn.org [mailto:occupymendocino-bounces@lists.mcn.org] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Richard Karch<br><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Sunday, March 8, 2020 12:54 PM<br><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> occupymendocino@lists.mcn.org<br><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [Occupymendocino] /homeless-double-risk-spreading-coronavirus<o:p></o:p></span></font></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>SALEM, Ore. -- They often don't have places to wash their hands, struggle with <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/Obamacare" target="_blank" id="_ap_link_health_Obamacare_"><font size=4 color="#002d6c"><span style='font-size:13.0pt;color:#002D6C;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>health</span></font></a> problems and crowd together in grimy camps.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>That's what makes homeless people particularly vulnerable to the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/Coronavirus" target="_blank" id="_ap_link_coronavirus_Coronavirus_"><font size=4 color="#002d6c"><span style='font-size:13.0pt;color:#002D6C;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>coronavirus</span></font></a>. Almost 200,000 people live in those conditions in the United States, according to a White House report, with Washington state, California and Oregon among the states most affected by homelessness as income inequality grows and housing costs rise. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>And — in a possible recipe for disaster — the new virus has hit hardest on the West Coast, where nearly all of the nation's deaths have occurred. Health officials have not yet reported coronavirus outbreaks among homeless populations, but tuberculosis and other diseases have swept through them in the past, underscoring their vulnerability. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Yet few communities that are trying to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus have rolled out plans to protect the homeless and give them a place to recover in isolation, which would prevent them from passing it on.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"They are double risk. One is a risk to themselves, the other is a risk to society,” said Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University in Corvallis.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>King County, which includes Seattle and has seen most of the deaths in the U.S., is one of the few places that's taken action: installing more than a dozen module units where infected homeless people can recover, some on county-owned land flanked by apartment buildings. The units, roughly the size of a mobile home that accommodate several people, were previously used by oil workers in Texas. County officials also bought a motel where coronavirus patients can recover in isolation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>That approach needs to be replicated in many more places, said Chi, who has been closely following the global outbreak that originated in China.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>“This should be treated as an emergency policy, not as a permanent solution to homelessness, but more of framing it as a solution for containing the spread,” Chi said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>San Francisco says it's developing a plan to protect the homeless from the virus but hasn't released details yet. A cruise ship believed to be a breeding ground for more than 10 cases has been lingering off the coast of the city.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>San Francisco postponed an event Thursday at a major arena that was to provide community services for the homeless. It typically draws up to 1,000 people and was delayed to reduce the risk of exposing the homeless population to coronavirus "because they are older as a group and typically have multiple chronic medical conditions,” the city said in a statement. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Farther south, in Los Angeles County, the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/Obamacare" target="_blank" id="_ap_link_health_Obamacare_"><font size=4 color="#002d6c"><span style='font-size:13.0pt;color:#002D6C;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>health</span></font></a> department is sending teams to over 300 homeless facilities to ensure people are washing their hands and not sharing food or utensils, department director Barbara Ferrer said. She's urging shelters to prepare large spaces to isolate those who may become sick. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Health officials in the nation's most populous county also are planning for a possible large-scale quarantine of homeless people in case the virus spreads, and will deploy street teams to work with those living in encampments to get people with symptoms treated.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Ferrer noted that health officials tell people to stay home when they’re sick, to wash their hands often and call their doctors with concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>“My heart goes out to the fact that they live in conditions that make it almost impossible for them," she said of the homeless Friday. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>In Oregon's capital city, where a makeshift homeless camp has sprouted up on downtown Salem sidewalks, an agency that aids the homeless is bringing in hand-washing stations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>“The homeless population in our community would be in a very difficult position of following all the health care advice that's coming out right now,” said Jimmy Jones, executive director of the agency Community Action. “If you're in a homeless camp, it's very difficult to wash your hands. It's very difficult to stay clean. It's very difficult to practice good hygiene.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>A homeless man in a long gray coat who was walking along a sidewalk in Salem said he is not particularly worried about the coronavirus.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Still, the man, who would only give his first name, Alex, and his age, 33, asked what areas it had spread to and how quickly it progresses in an infected person.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"I thought it could have been quarantined over in China maybe and didn't know how much it would spread before they had it all figured out,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Instead of being more vulnerable to the virus, he thought younger homeless people might be better able to fight it off.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>“Their immune systems have already been tested more than most people,” Alex said. “In general, I would think they might be less susceptible, unless it's an elderly homeless person."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Experts, though, say the homeless are more vulnerable because so many have underlying health conditions. So did many patients who have died. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Jones, the homeless advocate, said hepatitis C, heart disease and diabetes are prevalent among many of the 1,400 people who sleep on the streets, in cars or abandoned buildings, or in the woods and fields in Salem. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>“If they get this particular virus, there's a high degree of probability it's going to impact them more severely than it does the general population, with a higher mortality,” Jones said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>———<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Associated Press reporters Ted Warren in Seattle and Stephanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:.25in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:21.0pt;box-sizing: border-box'><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>———<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewselsky">https://twitter.com/andrewselsky</a></span></font><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/homeless-double-risk-spreading-coronavirus-69454275">https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/homeless-double-risk-spreading-coronavirus-69454275</a><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>