Tuesday, September 29, 2020

New report underscores conditions that made Prince George’s vulnerable to covid-19

(Tents set up to accommodate an overflow of coronavirus patients in April at Adventist HealthCare Fort Washington Medical Center. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

From Rachel Chason's report in The Washington Post:

"Long before Prince George’s County reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in Maryland, the conditions that would make the majority-Black suburb vulnerable to the virus were present, according to a report released Tuesday.
Overcrowded housing, high rates of uninsurance and preexisting health conditions are all more prevalent in the county than in the state and are concentrated in communities that have been hit particularly hard by covid-19, the report by the Rand Corp. said.
The nonprofit think tank — hired by the Prince George’s County Council two years ago to assess the health of county residents and make recommendations about how to improve it — also found that the county historically has invested less than neighboring jurisdictions in health and human services, and it recommended that the government study how it allocates such funding."

The Rand Corp. brief to the County Council Sitting as the Board of Health is here.

A video of the briefing is here.

The Rand report, "Assessing Health and Health Care in Prince George's County" is here.