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Photos by Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer In July, COVID-19 took the life of Metchell Dixon-Cameron’s mother, Helen Dixon (in snapshot). A month later, the disease returned to claim Metchell’s husband, Andrew Cameron. Less health care, more front-line jobs

Continued from Page 1A ness. Davis’ clinic employs five COVID-19 deaths by race, ethnicity and age in Texas 1,908 2,000 bilingual counselors, has an grief. This chart shows the number of coronavirus deaths by age and race/ethnicity per 100,000 people as opening for a sixth and may More than 4,200 Hispanics of Nov. 30. More than 21,500 Texans had died of COVID-19 by that date, according to state health need to add more staff to meet between ages 25 and 64 have data. The Dallas Morning News calculated age-specific rates, which means we divided the number 1,500 growing demand. Many of Da- died of COVID in Texas. That of deaths for each age and racial/ethnic group by the total population of that group. For vis’ patients escaped violence instance, Texas has an estimated 955,000 Hispanics ages 55-64, and 2,319 of them died of 1,172 works out to 74 deaths per COVID-19. That works out to 243 deaths per 100,000 residents. and persecution to come to the 100,000 people. Meanwhile, 1,027 U.S. The isolation and loss as- 1,000 more than 1,100 whites in that 869 sociated with COVID “adds an age group have died, which White Black Hispanic/Latino excruciating layer of emotional works out to 17 deaths per 563 596 pain,” she said. 100,000. The death rate for SOURCE: Dallas Morning News analysis by Holly K. Hacker 500 of Texas Department of State Health Services data Blacks fell in between, at 40 for 328 243 261 Trauma and grief every100,000. 91 104 112 30 53 The age disparities have 2 4 10 5 18 17 43 In July, COVID-19 took the gone underreported, Carlson 0 life of Metchell Dixon-Camer- said, because health experts AGES 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-84 85 and older on’s mother. A month later, the were not initially focused on disease returned to claim them. “We were aggregating all Metchell’s husband’s life. It’s not just the old Age at time Years lost to COVID-19 in Texas Life years lost to of the ages together,” she said. COVID-19, as a The husband, Andrew The vast majority of whites who of death UT-San Antonio demographer Rogelio Sáenz estimates percentage of “We were not delineating the die of COVID-19 do so at ages 65 0-29 the average number of years lost by Texans who died Cameron, spent his final days Texas' total: data by age when it came to and above. Among Blacks and 30-49 earlier than expected from COVID-19 and the collective in the hospital, and Metchell Black Other race and ethnicity. When you Latinos, that share is far smaller. 50-64 loss of years to the community. As a group, Latinos have wasn’t allowed to visit him. She 10.6% 1.5% separate it out by age, now we From Feb. 1-Dec. 5 65+ lost more than twice as many life years as whites and wonders whether being there see a significant and unjust dis- about six times as many as Blacks. That's a reflection of might have helped Andrew parity that demands attention.” White Other Black Latino the size and youth of Texas' Latino population and also of through his illness. “We had 100% the disproportionate toll COVID-19 has taken on Latinos. 28.3% 59.6% White Latino been together 25 years, and End of the 12.5% From Feb. 1-Dec. 5 we’d hardly ever been apart,” 80 17.5% 26.3% 24.5% said Metchell, 54, who is Black. ‘Latino Paradox’? 84.6% Age Individuals’ average Collective years lost to each 50-64 Texas population The hospital allowed her to 60 77.4% years lost to early death race/ethnic group The impact of these losses For reference see him only when he was dy- 66% Total 17.8 405,335 Black Other will reverberate long after the 62.9% ing. “If you can suit me up for 40 11.9% 7.2% pandemic recedes, experts say. Age Latino 20.2 241,446 when he’s getting ready to pass, 64+ Latinos have been by far the White 14.5 114,543 39.7% why can’t I do that when he’s hardest hit of Texas’ ethnic and 20 Latino still alive so he can see me and Black 17.7 43,148 racial groups, and losses 41.1% talk to me?” she said. White threaten to reverse the so- 0 Other 13.9 6,198 Metchell, a home health called “Latino Paradox.” SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; Rogelio Sáenz, UT-San Antonio, analysis of U.S. life tables aide, couldn’t face returning to The term describes a seem- Rogelio Sáenz, UT-San Antonio for 2018 adjusted to Texas-U.S. differences in life expectancies in 2015. the apartment she’d shared Laurie Joseph/Staff Artist ing contradiction: Latinos have with Andrew, so she moved in a lower socioeconomic status among Latinos ages 65 to 74 VID-19 and that person’s life First, they are likely to damage on Davis, chief medical officer temporarily with her son, Cort- than whites but a longer life ex- and will soon fade among those expectancy in Texas based on the Texas economy, Sáenz said. at the nonprofit Los Barrios ney, his wife and their six chil- pectancy. Support from ex- ages 55 to 64. “The longer the their age, race or ethnicity. La- Young Latinos have fueled Tex- Unidos Community Clinic. dren. tended family and friends is pandemic continues, we’re go- tinos have lost more than twice as’ economic growth, driving Children who had hoped to go Claudio Sanchez also relives thought to be at least partly be- ing to see other age categories as many life years as whites — a higher-education enrollment, to college may feel compelled to painful memories of being sep- hind Latinos’ traditionally low follow suit,” Sáenz said. total of 241,446. The figure re- expanding demand for hous- stay home and work to support arated from his fiancée the mo- mortality rates. At The News’ request, Sáenz flects Texas’ large Latino popu- ing, launching new businesses widowed parents and younger ment he dropped her off in the That was before COVID-19 calculated the total number of lation, its relative youth, Lati- and filling essential jobs in siblings, she said. Families face emergency room. He argued weaponized family together- years of life lost to COVID-19 nos’ long life expectancy and health care, transportation and the financial devastation of un- with the guard, trying to per- ness. Rogelio Sáenz, a demog- by racial and ethnic group in the heavy toll that COVID has manufacturing. employment combined with suade him to let him inside. rapher at the University of Tex- Texas. The number represents taken on the community. The pandemic will also cre- medical and funeral bills. Now, Claudio wishes he’d as at San Antonio, says the par- the difference between a per- These staggering losses ate new cycles of poverty and The pandemic is already adox has already vanished son’s age at death from CO- have several implications. reinforce the old, said Dr. Shar- leaving a legacy of mental ill- See VIRUS Page 13A

After losing Cortney holds a her husband, photo he posed Dixon-Cameron for with his late couldn’t face father, Andrew returning to the Cameron, at apartment they Cortney’s wed- had shared, so ding last year. she moved in Cameron died temporarily with one month after her son, Cortney COVID claimed Dixon, his wife Cortney’s grand- and their six mother Helen. children in Fort Worth. Here, she holds 3-week- old Londyn Dixon. The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com CORONAVIRUS M Sunday, December 20, 2020 13A

Metchell keeps Claudio has her late hus- some of his late band’s ashes fiancée’s favor- with her at her ite candy with a son’s home in glassofwater Fort Worth. “We and flowers from had been to- the funeral and gether 25 from Día de los years,” she says, Muertos at his “and we’d hard- home in ly ever been Lancaster. apart.”

Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer Virus weaponizes family closeness underserved communities and Continued from Page 12A earning their trust. Los Barrios spent that time talking with Unidos employs community Blanca instead. “That was the health care workers known as last time I saw her,”he said. promotores, who bridge the cul- Claudio hasn’t had time to tural and linguistic gap between process his feelings. Instead, he patients and doctors and are ex- keeps busy. He works at least pected to play an important role five days a week from 7 a.m. un- during the distribution of CO- til 3 p.m. His sister, a high VID-19 vaccines. school senior,cares for her cous- An added benefit of expand- ins during the day. After work, ing health care: Everyone Claudio stops at Walmart for would have access to a primary groceries, fixes dinner, cleans care physician, who would be- the kitchen, cleans the bath- come a trusted source of infor- rooms, runs the laundry, plans mation and help patients moni- and organizes lunches for the tor chronic health conditions, next day, and finally goes to bed. said Davis. Then he wakes at 5 a.m. and Esparza, of the CDC Foun- does it all over again. dation, said the situation won’t When Claudio isn’t preoccu- improve until society meets the pied with the children, his mind needs of its diverse population, churns over finances. There are especially in a state like Texas food bills for a family of seven, where Blacks and Latinos make winter clothes, Wi-Fi bills for up a majority. online school, truck payments, “Itisnolongera‘them.’Itis the mortgage, insurance, medi- an ‘us,’ ” she said cal and funeral costs. In the short term, there’s a Blanca had helped support simple yet powerful step every- the family as a medical assistant one can take, Spears said. and had been striving for more. “One of the best things that On top of her full-time job, she’d we can do — and that people are been working toward an associ- still choosing not to do — is ate’s degree to become an MRI Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer wear a mask and practice social technologist. “I feel like I’ve been robbed, just beaten up,” says Claudio Sanchez, who in a short time lost his fiancée, Blanca Leon (in distancing and stay home when The worst moments for portrait); his mother, Cecilia; and Blanca’s father, Jose — all to COVID-19. “It’s ripped apart everything,” he says. you can,”Spears said. “We’ve po- Claudio come when his children liticized this — and some people cry. Both his sons, Daniel, 6, and Blacks and other minorities don’t have that luxury.” Jose,14,havedayswhenthey than for whites. break down and want their Thirty-five years later, many Christmas disrupted mother. health disparities persist. “It’s hard to comfort them “What you’re seeing now When Claudio’s mother because I’m not the comforting with COVID deaths is a conse- died, his sister, Celeste, was in type,” Claudio said. “I’m more of quence of the continued mar- the hospital with COVID. Her the strict parent. It’s something ginalization of racial and ethnic doctors allowed Claudio in I’ve had to try to do.” minorities in this country,” said briefly to break the news. But he Erica Spears, an assistant pro- couldn’t tell her the way he What makes fessor at the University of North wanted to. It pained him to a household? Texas Health Science Center’s leave her after their conversa- School of Public Health. tion. Behind the high mortality Spears is part of a research “I felt like I just wasn’t doing rates among young Blacks and team studying the impacts of what a brother should be doing Latinos are a host of factors, in- COVID-19 on communities of for her — comforting her, show- cluding lower rates of health color, along with ways to make ing her that you’re not alone.” coverage and employment in sure members of racial and eth- This Christmas, Claudio is front-line jobs like health care nic minority groups are educat- doing what he can to stabilize and food production that ex- ed about the disease and includ- what’s left of his family, make pose workers to many other ed in clinical research trials and his sister, children and cousins people. Black and Latino fami- vaccination efforts. feel safe, and lay the ground- lies are also more likely than Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer “Such a large number of work for new traditions. white families to live in larger, Metchell sits with photos and her husband’s ashes. He spent his final days in the hospital, deaths from COVID-19 was For the Sanchez family, multigenerational households, and she wonders whether, if she’d been allowed to be there, he might have survived. avertable,” said Angelina Espar- Christmas was always a multi- where the virus can spread za, a Houston-based public day affair. Claudio’s mother, more easily. Misinformation has also ily. His fiancée Blanca’s parents the ofrenda, or altar site, that health expert who serves as a se- Cecilia, would make pork tama- Blacks and Latinos also have contributed to the deaths. Ben- invited close family to their volunteers had set up in City nior consultant to the CDC les — the largest ones Claudio higher rates of diabetes, obesity jamin, of the American Public house to celebrate her mother’s Hall Plaza. There, her image Foundation, a nonprofit that has ever seen. and other conditions that can Health Association, said Blacks, birthday in early July.There was was surrounded by those of oth- supports the work of the U.S. On Christmas Eve, the fami- make COVID-19 more severe. at the start of the pandemic, hand sanitizer but no masks. er victims of the pandemic and Centers for Disease Control and ly would gather to eat the tama- The conditions also affect many were exposed to false social me- “We felt there was no need to crosses honoring their memo- Prevention. “It hurts my heart les with rice, chips and borracho Blacks and Latinos at younger dia messages telling them they wear a mask, because we were ries. that so many people have died beans, washed down with ages than whites, said Dr. were immune to COVID-19. all being safe,”Claudio said. On a livestream video, an in- and yet still we’re looking at Cokes. They would joke, laugh Georges Benjamin, executive Davis, of Los Barrios Unidos, The kids were out of school, terviewer asked Claudio’s older each other like, ‘What hap- and talk about the year that had director of the American Public said Texas’ patchwork of CO- and Blanca was working from son, Jose, what he would miss pened?’ We know what hap- passed. Before dinner, the men Health Association. VID restrictions proved confus- home. But soon after the party, most about his mother. “Just pened.” would sit around a plastic table Claudio’s fiancée and his ing. Many people thought that, Blanca’s father felt ill. When he her,” said Jose, wearing a Dallas playing dominoes, and after mother both had diabetes. But once the state reopened, it was had trouble breathing, Blanca Cowboys jersey and looking the Closing health gaps dinner, everyone opened pre- so does Claudio, and he won- safe to see people outside their drove him to the hospital, and interviewer in the eye. “The feel- sents. ders why the virus took both household again. then got sick as well. They died ing of her being in the house.” To close health gaps magni- Christmas Day was split be- their lives but triggered relative- Many people also interpret- within two weeks of each other, That same day, Claudio’s fied by COVID-19, Davis of Los tween visits with Blanca’s par- ly mild symptoms in him. ed the term “household” differ- in late July and mid-August. mother was feeling worse and Barrios Unidos and Sáenz of ents, with whom Claudio was While Latinos have higher ently. Some believed it applied Claudio’s mother, 53-year- worse. Knowing that Blanca UT-San Antonio said, Texas very close, and his mom and COVID mortality rates in Texas to close relatives they didn’t live old Cecilia Sanchez, worked as a and Blanca’s father had died in needs to expand Medicaid. aunt. than in the U.S. as a whole, with but saw regularly. Only in dispatcher for a moving compa- the hospital, Cecilia was too The state has the highest rate “This year, nothing will be white and Black people in Texas November did the U.S. Centers ny. She, too, was able to work afraid to go to the emergency of uninsured people in the the same,”he said. have had lower COVID-19 mor- for Disease Control and Preven- from home but fell ill in late Oc- room. Though she was cough- country, of which Latinos make At times, Claudio reflects on tality rates than they do nation- tion define a household mem- tober after attending a funeral ing uncontrollably, she insisted up the majority. Around 38% of how much he has lost so quickly. ally, said Sáenz of UT-San An- ber as someone who has lived in where everyone wore masks. to Claudio that she would stay Latinos in Texas between the Just five months ago, his family tonio. the home for the past 14 days, On Sunday, Nov. 1, Claudio’s home and drink cough syrup. ages of 19 and 64 lack health in- was intact. Now he’s built an al- That may be because Blacks Davis said. family marked the Day of the That evening, she collapsed surance, compared with 20% of tar to those who have died. A have a relatively higher socio- “We are spreading the stuff Dead, the annual Mexican holi- at home and died in an ambu- Blacks and 15% of whites, ac- large, framed portrait of Blanca economic status in the state personally within our families,” day honoring ancestors, by at- lance on the way to the hospital. cording to U.S. Census Bureau hangs on the wall above, her than Blacks in the U.S. do, he said Lupe Garcia, who has run tending a protest and proces- data shared by Sáenz. Benefits blond hair in a bob, her cheeks said. In contrast, Texas Latinos Calvario Funeral Homes for sion in downtown Dallas. ‘Avertable’ deaths like paid time off and sick leave rosy and youthful. fare worse socioeconomically nearly four decades. He said he’s The event memorialized the for essential workers are also “Instead of being with them, than Latinos across the nation never seen such a sobering many Latinos who had died COVID’s devastating effects key. we’ll be praying to them,” he do. chain of death — not even dur- from COVID-19 but also took on Black and Latino communi- “We try to make visits as said. “We’ll be celebrating with That does not excuse the dis- ing the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. aim at the federal and state gov- ties are not surprising to public cheap as we can,” said Davis, their pictures instead of actually parities, however. When he hears that someone ernments’ slow response to health researchers. whose clinic sees uninsured pa- having them here.” “The numbers are too high died of COVID-19, the cause of fighting the virus. It was orga- In 1985, the federal govern- tients for free or on a sliding for both groups,” said Dr. Jewel infection usually comes up. nized by the League of United ment published a landmark re- scale. “But I’m not their employ- Mullen, associate dean for “It’s not ‘I got it at Target or Latin American Citizens and port on racial and ethnic health er, so I can’t give them time off to [email protected], health equity and an assistant Sam’s,’ no. It’s ‘We got it at a the Cara Mía Theatre. disparities. It found that six come see us.” [email protected], professor of population health birthday party.’ ” Wearing surgical masks, causes of mortality — including Davis also said medical ex- [email protected] Twitter: @akuchment, at the University of Texas at That is how the chain of in- Claudio and his sons placed a cancer, diabetes and heart dis- perts need to do a much better @hollyhacker,@disolis Austin’s Dell Medical School. fection started in Claudio’s fam- large, framed photo of Blanca in ease — were far deadlier for job of engaging low-income,