Excerpt: Although COVID-19 affects everyone, its impact on the Navajo Nation, which calls COVID-19 Dikos Nitsaaigii Ndhast’eits’aadah, or “Big Cough 19,” is more profound. Efforts to contain and stop the virus include the three W’s: wear (masks), wait (social distancing), and wash (handwashing). These three actions become onerous for people without the financial resources to purchase masks or hand sanitizer or living in overcrowded conditions. The lack of adequate water for personal hygiene exacerbates water-washed infections like COVID-19. For indigenous communities within the Navajo Nation in Arizona, preventing infectious disease by handwashing is difficult as there is not adequate access to reliable running water. As a community with over 309,000 members, half of whom reside in multi-generational households, addressing the systemic challenges limiting the Navajo Nation’s access to water would reduce the disparate impacts of COVID-19.
