Covid-19
Cultural perspectives to the pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has affected several aspects of our lives and has varied effects in different Australian States and Territory, Victoria inclusive. When the disease firsts started in 2019, nobody could have guessed its impacts on the whole world, but the disease has come to surprise everyone by becoming the first pandemic with such widespread cases all over the world. Every country in the world was affected. Many are still battling with it up till now; Australia is one of the few countries where the spread has been brought under control, thereby allowing the economy to resume gradually. Still, there is enough reason to be very cautious, and nothing says this more than the statistics on the virus in Victoria.
COVID-19 disproportionately affected the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Victoria than any other group. While the state government has not released any data along the lines of this perhaps to prevent discrimination, not giving enough attention to this subgroup and having a targeted approach to the covid response will focus on these people. This occurrence is not unique to Australia as every part of the world; the CALD communities and economically disadvantaged people are at most risk of contracting Covid-19 and face even poorer health outcomes.
Looking at the infection distribution map of the virus shows that the Covid-19 hotspots can be found mostly in low socio-economic suburbs which are populated by culturally and linguistically diverse people and contain a larger percentage of immigrant communities. One may wonder why this is so, but reports on the virus in other countries suggest that s is related to the social determinant of health in which overcrowding, poverty, exclusion & poorer access to health, and lower education increase the risks of infections spreading.
Furthermore, cultural, linguistic, and religious differences affect how public health messages are received, understood, and acted upon. It is crystal clear that language barriers will limit how the message gets across and strongly held religious and cultural practices also affect how people adhere to government restrictions. For instance, the concept of the extended family is much more important in many cultures as against the western cultures that focus on nuclear families.
It is also likely that the employment for those who are in the lower socio-economic settings or part of CALD communities could also have played a role in the rates of transmission and infection. Most times, members of these groups usually have casual and lower-paid jobs, work multiple jobs in different locations, and usually work in service industry roles. A large percentage of them work longhouses in essential sectors, making them part of our frontline workers to combat Covid-19.
There is little evidence to suggest that the government has focused on engaging with these at-risk communities with the government response still focusing on compliance with restrictions without any special attention paid to the high-risk groups.