My Opinion On Why COVID-19 Is Hitting The Most Vulnerable Among Us

Heather Crismond

5 min readMay 9, 2020

This is my opinion. I am not an expert. This is not a fact. There is no scientific data to back this up. This is not even an educated guess. This is not news. This is not fake news. It is just a very human observation from my years living among other humans. People fascinate me.

COVID-19 is killing selectively. We are losing our grandparents, parents, our disabled and are poor. The numbers of the sick and dying among the lower class are so disproportionate that states refused to release the data of how many blacks and Latinos had tested positive and died.

I’ve been homeless on and off for three years now. I was forced kicking and screaming onto these streets dragging my full-time job with me. I kept that up for four months while being homeless. I don’t give up easily but everyone has a breaking point.

Never one to think about the consequences that would result from my hastily made decisions. I walked out following a confrontation with my boss. My ignorance removed the last obstacle between just living on the streets and becoming a part of it.

Unfortunately, I was the only one in the dark. The treatment I received from my fellow man caused me to completely retreat from a society I no longer understood.

The homeless and the poor see a different America than those in white-collar and to some extent blue-collar America.

Charities are stretched to the limits of their resources. So that they have become like Band-Aids on a broken neck.

The Stay Home Work Safe initiative is laughable. How is a homeless person supposed to stay at home? The shelters?

They are disease-ridden drug dens. Where if you leave your things for just one-eighth of a second you really didn’t want them anyway.

There is no working safe for minimum wage workers unless they’re sitting at home collecting unemployment. You know, from those jobs that were created after the last recession. Those part-time $7.25 an hour jobs.

Their tax dollars are so small that their neighborhoods are not just neglected but cesspools primed and ready for a pandemic’s playground.

Subways and alleyways have the stench of decades worth of urine. The trash is left on streets and sidewalks decaying like mutant leaves.

Playgrounds are littered with glass and crumbling asphalt. Where children are not able to climb and play because of broken equipment. Left abandoned they become a meeting place for drug deals.

Subsidized housing and crooked section 8 housing inspectors leave families stoves that barely warm if at all. Leaky pipes that fill glasses with dirty water. As well as their neighbor’s apartment.

Living quarters meant for two or three occupants are housing three generations of families. Privacy is an unknown luxury.

Most have become desensitized to conditions that would horrify you. They have been shown time and time again that your America is not theirs.

You close their schools and build jails. Yet blame them for their lack of ambition. Buses have no routes going to their part of town yet you fault them for not finding a job.

They have learned the rights of the poor is a lie. They do not see a land of the free when so many are locked up for the simple fact they can not pay their bond to get out.

Apparently there’s this law that states a bond can not be set to such an extent that the person has to remain in jail because of the inability to pay their bond. This is largely ignored.

These overcrowded jails are so tightly packed that social distancing is ludicrous. The new arrivals are forced to stay in booking for over 24 hours with little to no enforcement on the wearing of masks.

Then they are put in solitary for two weeks. Only to be let out for a half-hour a day.

I’m sure most of the people that find their way to this story have never been inside a jail. I unfortunately have.

All jails are not created equal.

Some, usually the privately-owned ones are very clean. Those found in the downtown of major cities are filthy cockroach-infested breeding grounds for a staph infection. COVID-19 is very comfortable here. Which is reflected in the vast majority of cases coming from jails.

After their release they infect everyone they meet. There have been studies since the pandemic began showing the number of lives that would be saved if only they would allow the non-violent offenders to await there court appearance at home.

Instead of responding with just a small amount of compassion and some common sense, most jails remains pretty much at capacity.

All of the deplorable conditions aside. When a human is treated with such little respect from a police force that has forgotten that their motto Protect and Serve encompasses all human beings regardless of class gender or ethnicity.

I have witnessed EMTs who love to play God. Not only refusing to treat people but also having them arrested for trespassing because they fell on private property. I wish with all my heart that I was making this up.

People in positions of authority, just by these actions are basically giving permission to reign down any number of atrocities on the least protected most accessible class we have.

When a person is treated less than human after a while he begins to believe it.

Not at first. There’s a shock and anger phase before the blank look of despair enters their eyes. This look rarely leaves once in place.

They have given up. And it breaks my heart.

COVID-19 is spreading with lightning speed not only because of the essential, low-wage, highly public jobs they are forced to work. Not from filth and overcrowding.

They are dying because they are being told to practice social distancing and wear masks by a society that has either, at best forgotten they were there or, worse treats them like something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

Their government wants them to stay home in an overcrowded apartment where you can’t find a place to sit. Where a drunken father or husband lies in wait. Or where the television hasn’t been turned on for months because there’s no money for the cable bill.

They are not consciously ignoring these orders. Especially, since law enforcement is excessively enforcing these rules in black and Latino neighborhoods.

You have been ignoring them for years. They have learned to do the same.

What do you get when a whole class of people not only loses any hope for a better future but also has no respect for “civilized society”?

You have a perfect storm that was just waiting for a disaster like COVID-19 to come around and engulf this nation and the world.

I for one am ready for a change. The day will come soon when we realize that we were all created equal. That human rights belong to every single human on this planet and we need to stop fighting each other and build a stronger sustainable peaceful future for our children.

My Opinion On Why COVID-19 Is Hitting The Most Vulnerable Among Us

This is my opinion. I am not an expert. This is not a fact. There is no scientific data to back this up. This is not even an educated guess. This is not news. This is not fake news. It is just a very human observation from my years living among other humans. People fascinate me.

COVID-19 is killing selectively. We are losing our grandparents, parents, our disabled and are poor. The numbers of the sick and dying among the lower class are so disproportionate that states refused to release the data of how many blacks and Latinos had tested positive and died.

I’ve been homeless on and off for three years now. I was forced kicking and screaming onto these streets dragging my full-time job with me. I kept that up for four months while being homeless. I don’t give up easily but everyone has a breaking point.

Never one to think about the consequences that would result from my hastily made decisions. I walked out following a confrontation with my boss. My ignorance removed the last obstacle between just living on the streets and becoming a part of it.

Unfortunately, I was the only one in the dark. The treatment I received from my fellow man caused me to completely retreat from a society I no longer understood.

The homeless and the poor see a different America than those in white-collar and to some extent blue-collar America.

Charities are stretched to the limits of their resources. So that they have become like Band-Aids on a broken neck.

The Stay Home Work Safe initiative is laughable. How is a homeless person supposed to stay at home? The shelters?

They are disease-ridden drug dens. Where if you leave your things for just one-eighth of a second you really didn’t want them anyway.

There is no working safe for minimum wage workers unless they’re sitting at home collecting unemployment. You know, from those jobs that were created after the last recession. Those part-time $7.25 an hour jobs.

Their tax dollars are so small that their neighborhoods are not just neglected but cesspools primed and ready for a pandemic’s playground.

Subways and alleyways have the stench of decades worth of urine. The trash is left on streets and sidewalks decaying like mutant leaves.

Playgrounds are littered with glass and crumbling asphalt. Where children are not able to climb and play because of broken equipment. Left abandoned they become a meeting place for drug deals.

Subsidized housing and crooked section 8 housing inspectors leave families stoves that barely warm if at all. Leaky pipes that fill glasses with dirty water. As well as their neighbor’s apartment.

Living quarters meant for two or three occupants are housing three generations of families. Privacy is an unknown luxury.

Most have become desensitized to conditions that would horrify you. They have been shown time and time again that your America is not theirs.

You close their schools and build jails. Yet blame them for their lack of ambition. Buses have no routes going to their part of town yet you fault them for not finding a job.

They have learned the rights of the poor is a lie. They do not see a land of the free when so many are locked up for the simple fact they can not pay their bond to get out.

Apparently there’s this law that states a bond can not be set to such an extent that the person has to remain in jail because of the inability to pay their bond. This is largely ignored.

These overcrowded jails are so tightly packed that social distancing is ludicrous. The new arrivals are forced to stay in booking for over 24 hours with little to no enforcement on the wearing of masks.

Then they are put in solitary for two weeks. Only to be let out for a half-hour a day.

I’m sure most of the people that find their way to this story have never been inside a jail. I unfortunately have.

All jails are not created equal.

Some, usually the privately-owned ones are very clean. Those found in the downtown of major cities are filthy cockroach-infested breeding grounds for a staph infection. COVID-19 is very comfortable here. Which is reflected in the vast majority of cases coming from jails.

After their release they infect everyone they meet. There have been studies since the pandemic began showing the number of lives that would be saved if only they would allow the non-violent offenders to await there court appearance at home.

Instead of responding with just a small amount of compassion and some common sense, most jails remains pretty much at capacity.

All of the deplorable conditions aside. When a human is treated with such little respect from a police force that has forgotten that their motto Protect and Serve encompasses all human beings regardless of class gender or ethnicity.

I have witnessed EMTs who love to play God. Not only refusing to treat people but also having them arrested for trespassing because they fell on private property. I wish with all my heart that I was making this up.

People in positions of authority, just by these actions are basically giving permission to reign down any number of atrocities on the least protected most accessible class we have.

When a person is treated less than human after a while he begins to believe it.

Not at first. There’s a shock and anger phase before the blank look of despair enters their eyes. This look rarely leaves once in place.

They have given up. And it breaks my heart.

COVID-19 is spreading with lightning speed not only because of the essential, low-wage, highly public jobs they are forced to work. Not from filth and overcrowding.

They are dying because they are being told to practice social distancing and wear masks by a society that has either, at best forgotten they were there or, worse treats them like something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

Their government wants them to stay home in an overcrowded apartment where you can’t find a place to sit. Where a drunken father or husband lies in wait. Or where the television hasn’t been turned on for months because there’s no money for the cable bill.

They are not consciously ignoring these orders. Especially, since law enforcement is excessively enforcing these rules in black and Latino neighborhoods.

You have been ignoring them for years. They have learned to do the same.

What do you get when a whole class of people not only loses any hope for a better future but also has no respect for “civilized society”?

You have a perfect storm that was just waiting for a disaster like COVID-19 to come around and engulf this nation and the world.

I for one am ready for a change. The day will come soon when we realize that we were all created equal. That human rights belong to every single human on this planet and we need to stop fighting each other and build a stronger sustainable peaceful future for our children.

Written by Heather Crismond