05.19.2020

How Is the Pandemic Affecting the Navajo Nation?

Doctors Without Borders is an entity most people associate with war-torn countries. But right now, the organization is working to combat coronavirus within America itself – and few parts of the country need it more than the Navajo Nation, a community particularly vulnerable to the ravages of this disease. The nation’s president Jonathan Nez joins Christiane to discuss the dire situation.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Tell me right now how it’s going. Are any of the mitigation methods, you know, helping? And what kind of assistance are you getting from the federal government?

JONATHAN NEZ, PRESIDENT, NAVAJO NATION: Well, thank you for having us on the show, Christiane. Let me just give you the latest data that was given to me by our epidemiology team. Overall, here on the Navajo Nation, our residents, our population, 25,682 of our citizens have been tested. Now, we have 4,071 who have tested positive, and 19,964 have tested negative. So, the statistic that’s out there right now shows that, per capita, the Navajo Nation has gone above New York and New Jersey, yes, but, at the same time, Christiane, here on the Navajo Nation, we have been testing very, very aggressively. I know, over the weekend…

AMANPOUR: So…

NEZ: … the New York governor said that his total population is a little bit over 7 percent that has been tested. Here on the Navajo Nation, 15 percent have been tested, here on the Navajo Nation.

AMANPOUR: Well, so tell me, how? How did you get that good fortune to have that many tests? Because we have been talking about how the president has been promising millions of tests, and they’re not up and running yet. How did you get them?

NEZ: Yes. Well, you know, Christiane, sometimes they say be careful of what you ask for. We had a call out for health care professionals. You also mentioned Doctors Without Borders, University of California-San Francisco, doctors and nurses coming here, also from the University of Arizona, Let me just say, Christiane, that we asked for test kits, and now many organizations are donating test kits to the Navajo Nation. We have had test blitz happening here on the Navajo Nation, thousands and hundreds at a time testing happening here on the Navajo Nation. And that is why we have tested over 15 percent of our total population, more than any state in the United States of America.

AMANPOUR: OK.

NEZ: So, if you test more people, of course you are going to have more positive and negative results.

About This Episode EXPAND

Senator Bob Menendez reacts to the White House’s firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. Veteran journalists Susan Glasser and Ed Luce discuss the wider political fallout of Linick’s dismissal. Navajo Nation president Jonathan Nez explains the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on his community. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discusses how the pandemic is pushing tech innovation.

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