As coronavirus spreads, caregivers in elder care facilities fear they can’t afford to call in sick

Sarah James on her four-wheeler outside Arctic Village, Alaska. Credit: Amy Martin


** The refuge revealed
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For this week’s episode ([link removed]) , we teamed up with the Threshold podcast and the Pulitzer Center. We look closely at how efforts to expand oil and gas drilling in America’s largest wildlife refuge have affected local communities – and how those effects overlap with much larger questions about global climate change.

For more than 40 years, energy companies have fought for the right to expand their operations into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area nearly 10 times the size of Yellowstone National Park. In 2017, they finally got congressional approval. Now, land auctions could start at any time, even though most Americans oppose drilling in the refuge.

In the tiny town of Kaktovik, Alaska, oil and gas exploration could become an immensely intrusive endeavor, with oil rigs laced between homes and jutting into residents’ backyards. Yet it could also generate enormous wealth.

“What do you want to do, make a lot of money or preserve the culture?” asks Robert Thompson, a local tour guide. He believes that oil and gas companies have sold his neighbors an empty dream.

Matthew Rexford, an Iñupiat tribal administrator, has a different perspective. When Congress authorized drilling, “it felt like a blessing,” he said. “The opportunities for our people have been opened up, and if any development does occur in and around our area, we want to ensure that it is done right.”

Meanwhile, 150 miles away, many in the community of Arctic Village fear that drilling could compromise the delicate balance they’ve established with the ecosystem that sustains them – an ecosystem already confronting the dire consequences of a warming planet.

Hear the episode. ([link removed])

A worker at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., wears a mask as she leaves the building this week. At least eight COVID-19 deaths have been tied to the long-term care facility. Credit: Ted S. Warren/Associated Press


** As coronavirus spreads, caregivers in elder care facilities fear they can’t afford to call in sick
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Legions of low-wage elder care workers lack paid sick leave and health care, increasing the risk of exposure to the new coronavirus for more than 2 million residents in nursing homes and senior care facilities across the country. Seniors are more likely ([link removed]) to become infected with the coronavirus, especially if they have underlying health ailments, and the fatality rate for those over 80 was as high as 14.8% as of mid-February, according ([link removed]) to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We’re trying our best to take precautions,” said Henry Sevilla, who earns $14 an hour working as a caregiver in a small senior care home in the San Francisco Bay Area. “I don’t have sick leave. I’m worried about it.”

Sevilla is careful to pull on a mask and rubber gloves before tending to residents in the facility. While California is one of a dozen states ([link removed]) that require employers to provide paid sick leave, Sevilla says his employer ignores the requirement. If he falls ill with the coronavirus and has to stay home from work, Sevilla says he’ll lose pay.

Paid sick leave policies for low-wage workers, particularly those in elder care facilities, have gained widespread attention as COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, spreads around the globe. As of today, more than 113,000 peoplehave been infected ([link removed]) and about 4,000 have died, including 21 in the U.S. At least eight of those deaths were at a nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, which remains under quarantine.

Read the full story. ([link removed])
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