NEVADA VIEWS: Southern Nevada’s homeless and the coronavirus
One of the most vulnerable special-needs communities to coronavirus exposure is the homeless. As I understand it, according to my health care providers, I have a compromised immune system as one of the homeless citizens of Las Vegas. This, combined with contact with others in shelters or encampments, provides a breeding ground for the virus. While we have not taken a cruise or traveled recently, the exposure to tourists by those who panhandle in our community is a real risk.
The obvious solution is widespread testing. But once we identify that a homeless individual has the virus, how do we quarantine without cutting off shelter services? It seems society’s preference is to further stigmatize the homeless by assuming the virus will grow among us — and if we die, that’s one less freeloader on our streets.
We are at a moral crossroads as a society. We must have the courage and determination to launch an aggressive program of testing in our special-needs communities with contingencies in place for quarantine and shelter. It is likely that one resident of our various shelters has been exposed to the virus, and those exposed to that individual may face quarantine.
The governor last week declared a state of emergency. Under it, the homeless should be treated as any other community displaced by a natural disaster.
It is a given that some in my community will be touched by the coronavirus. Now is the time to choose: prepare or ignore? We know we are considered pariahs by society. But the coronavirus is no respecter of persons, rich or poor, housed or unhoused. The virus of moral decay is more dangerous than the coronavirus. The decisions we make now will determine the health of our communities for generations to come. Ignore the least of these at your peril.
— Ron Moore writes from Las Vegas.
