Members of the Navajo Nation reflect on the devastating effect of COVID-19: ”We want to do better”

Members of the Navajo Nation open to the devastating have an effect on COVID-19 and how they controlled to flatten the curve despite a constant war to protect their people.

The Navajo Nation has fought hard since the coronavirus swept its land and set more than 9,000 people on fire, killing 454 other people on Thursday, according to Navajo’s Ministry of Health.

With the cases shown, the country still has an upside infection rate consistent with the rate of infection in the United States, as well as an unemployment rate approximately 3 times higher than the U.S. average, Today reported.

They also face an astonishing poverty challenge that leaves 30 to 40% of families in the region with running water or electricity, making preventive responsibilities, such as hand-washing, almost impossible.

Cynthia McFadden, NBC’s chief research correspondent, recently led Navajo Nation with her son, where they met with several members to discuss their difficulties and how they managed to slow the spread.

“Since we started reporting on the Navajo Nation crisis in April, I haven’t managed to get other people out of my mind,” McFadden told PEOPLE. “It’s deeply moving to spend there on the user and see first-hand their incredible stamina and determination to protect each other.

“They did what many impossible ideas: in the most difficult circumstances, they flattened their curve. And they did so in a position where 30-40% of the houses don’t have running water,” he says of the area, which extends to both sides of the borders. Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

RELATED: The Navajo Nation has more COVID-19 than 12 states, and more deaths than 7 states combined

According to several Navajo members, Native Americans have been treated inhumanely through other outdoors in their reserve, making it incredibly difficult to download resources good enough to fight COVID-19.

“Everything other people read in our history books, like, ‘Oh, it’s so sad that it’s happened to the Indians,’ it’s never over,” Jeneda Benally, bassist and singer of a Navajo punk rock band whose father is a healer, says in the clip. “He’s still here.”

“My father, other people tell him you’re not welcome,” Jenada’s brother Clayson Benally added. “There were symptoms that Indians or dogs were not allowed. It’s just a component of truth that’s ingrained.”

Dr. Laura Hammitt told Today that Native Americans lately have the hospitalization rates of any racial organization in the United States because of COVID-19.

Part of this is due to the fact that the Navajo Nation has only 12 health care services spread over 27,000 square miles. Many citizens also suffer from chronic fitness disorders such as diabetes, central disease and obesity, putting those who contract the virus at an increased risk of serious disease, according to NBC News and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s not a racial issue, but a question of institutional racism that has made others more vulnerable to infectious diseases and kept them more vulnerable for many years,” Said Hammitt, an infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, in the clip.

Shardai Pioche, an associate of Johns Hopkins studies at Hammitt, also noted that Native Americans are most likely to fight intellectual aptitude problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and addiction.

In addition to having the suicide rate, Pioche said many Native Americans had died drinking a hand sanitizer combined with water to update alcohol.

“It’s called ” Ocean Water ” here on the reservation, so some died after drinking this,” he explained in the clip. “If you can’t drink alcohol, you can get a hand sanitizer and it only costs $3. This goes hand in hand with poverty.

Despite its many struggles, the Navajo Nation has controlled to stop the spread, implementing a number of safety measures for its other COVID-19s, such as a curfew at 8 p.m., social distance and the imposition of facelifts.

A few months ago, the Nation recently earned $50 million in investment from the federal CARES Act, which aimed to help distribute and equip water infrastructure projects, non-public protective appliances and a threat premium for workers, among other things, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

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Members of the United States Congress also provided the Navajo Nation with $714 million in aid, but reserve president Jonathan Nez said he is proposing more than $300 million more to supply its population with water, electricity, broadband and housing.

“There’s a lot of WishArray … Don’t get me wrong, we’re grateful for the Array,” he said in the clip. “We have no cure, there is no vaccine, so how can we prepare for the long term? If we can supply running water to our citizens, it will keep COVID-19 away from our country and from any long-term viruses.”

Jeneda added: “We want systems that invest in our other people, that are not preparation solutions, but that Array invests in the strength and endurance of our other people. We have to do better.”

As of Monday afternoon, there had been more than 4.6 million cases and at least 155336 coronavirus deaths in the United States, according to the New York Times.

More than McFadden’s interview at Navajo Nation will air on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt Monday at 6:30 p.m. And.

As data on the coronavirus pandemic is adjusted quickly, PEOPLE is committed to providing the maximum up-to-date knowledge of our coverage. Some of the data in this story would possibly have been replaced after publication. For the latest data on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use the online resources of CDC, WHO and local public fitness departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise funds for the COVID-19 Help Fund, an event to raise funds from GoFundMe.org for everything from frontline staff to families in need, as well as organizations that help communities. For more information or to donate, click here.

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