Coronavirus pandemic: LGBTQ community at higher risk due to treatment discrimination, HIV-linked illnesses
Coronavirus has multiplied ten-fold and claimed lives like no other disease in a matter of months. The pandemic, as the World Health Organisation has now termed it, finds an easy host in the older demographics and children. The greater the physical contact, the larger the risk. Governments have taken action towards keeping the virus at bay and assumed steps to eradicate the risk of the infection.
Not only is it targeting health, but the growing concerns for COVID-19 are affecting nearly everyone, especially the LGBTQ+ community, whose advocacy groups stress that it is highly susceptible to contracting the respiratory disease.
Over 100 LGBTQ health organizations and support groups on March 11 came together to sign a joint open letter that safeguards LGBTQ from the potentially deadly coronavirus. Various media and health providers have been urged to be aware of the threat it poses to the LGBTQ community, as opposed to the general public.
In an open statement issued by The National LGBT Cancer Network and Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality, various reasons were given for their vulnerability to COVID-19.
First, it is a respiratory illness and has proven to be particularly harmful to regular smokers; as LGBTQ+ population uses tobacco at rates that are 50% higher than the general population, the community is at higher risk.
Second, the letter also underlines the increased risk of the coronavirus on LGBTQ people that may be battling other illnesses. The community holds higher rates of HIV and cancer, which means a large mass may possess compromised immune systems, possibly too week to fight the infection.
The third cause for vulnerability towards this newly-discovered virus is reluctance in seeking medical help. LGBTQ+ people frequently experience discrimination, unwelcoming attitudes, and lack of understanding from providers of health care.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 9.2 per cent of transgender people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Additionally, people with cardiovascular diseases and those undergoing treatment for the same are also more likely to succumb to the infection.
A common word of advice most people have been following is avoiding public places. To the queers, cultural assimilation is a foundation that helped the community thrive, and a lack thereof has affected the LGBT scene drastically. Furthermore, it has taken a toll on the nightlife that sustains LGBTQ+ activities. The drag community is suffering as drag queens have also scrapped gigs. It has disrupted businesses because people would rather use virtual mediums to meet, communicate or date. Any of physical contact, kissing or sex, is now out of the question.
Clinics and the health care system have begun to advise people to not get tested unless the symptoms are serious. Many cities attempting to eradicate the disease have also fallen short of coronavirus test-kits to determine the disease in its early stages. Albeit, while confirmed cases and death tolls are surging, there are possibilities of many unreported cases due to ignorance, lack of medical help and fear.