Whitey Ford
09-28-2020, 03:48 PM
CDC Calls Off Minnesota COVID-19 Study After Reports of Racism and Intimidation Against Surveyors of Color
https://i.imgur.com/U3VkKqm.jpg
Minnesota public health survey of the impact of COVID-19 has been halted after several incidents in which surveyors of color were intimidated or called racial slurs, state health officials confirm to TIME.
“Through the CASPER survey, we had hoped to better understand how COVID-19 is spreading in Minnesota and how it is affecting people. That kind of understanding could have helped us improve multiple aspects of our response,” said Dan Huff, the Assistant Commissioner for the Health Protection Bureau of the Minnesota Department of Health, in a statement to TIME.
“However, a series of troubling incidents across Minnesota caused the CDC to pull its teams and halt the project,” he continued. “CASPER teams with people of color on them have been subjected to racial slurs.”
Huff said on Sept. 15, a team of surveyors in Eitzen, Minn., were surrounded by three men, one of whom was armed, and “refused to accept their identification as public health workers.” The men used “racial epithets” against the survey team, who “felt that the intention of the men was to intimidate them,” his statement continued.
https://time.com/5893697/covid-19-survey-minnesota-cdc-racial-slurs/
https://i.imgur.com/U3VkKqm.jpg
Minnesota public health survey of the impact of COVID-19 has been halted after several incidents in which surveyors of color were intimidated or called racial slurs, state health officials confirm to TIME.
“Through the CASPER survey, we had hoped to better understand how COVID-19 is spreading in Minnesota and how it is affecting people. That kind of understanding could have helped us improve multiple aspects of our response,” said Dan Huff, the Assistant Commissioner for the Health Protection Bureau of the Minnesota Department of Health, in a statement to TIME.
“However, a series of troubling incidents across Minnesota caused the CDC to pull its teams and halt the project,” he continued. “CASPER teams with people of color on them have been subjected to racial slurs.”
Huff said on Sept. 15, a team of surveyors in Eitzen, Minn., were surrounded by three men, one of whom was armed, and “refused to accept their identification as public health workers.” The men used “racial epithets” against the survey team, who “felt that the intention of the men was to intimidate them,” his statement continued.
https://time.com/5893697/covid-19-survey-minnesota-cdc-racial-slurs/