Homeless at 'double risk' of getting, spreading coronavirus

[Newest Reality]

Homeless people are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus

SALEM, Ore. -- They often don't have places to wash their hands, struggle with health problems and crowd together in grimy camps.

That's what makes homeless people particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. 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.

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.

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.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/homeless-double-risk-spreading-coronavirus-69454275

[Aristus]

1. Unless I get symptoms, I'm going go to to work every day at the homeless clinic.

So far, none of my homeless patients have come in to get tested; I expect those with symptoms are going to the emergency rooms and urgent care centers.

[janterry]

2. I don't know what we could do

Our general ways of dealing with folks who are homeless, are big shelters. I don't know how we'd have the capacity to shift that - right now. The spread has already started

I was thinking about this earlier today - and this seems like a potential disaster. (more than potential). If you multiply that by the thousands of drop in shelters across the country.....

It's staggering. I posted a week or two ago specifically about skid row (in LA, right?). But all of the comparable places - like that - where the unhoused camp - that's also so vulnerable to this.

[BamaRefugee]

3. I'm in downtoen Los Angles every day, there are what I would guess to be thousands of people living

on sidewalks everywhere, most in plastic tents.
I don't see how they can care for themselves under the best circumstances, but this is gonna be terrible. I can imagine there will simply be bodies lying around in the warm California sunshine.