The Gainesville Sun Editorial Board
East Gainesville has long experienced a lack of access to health care and economic opportunities as compared to the west side of our community. Then the COVID-19 pandemic came along.
The pandemic has shown how long-standing racial and socioeconomic disparities affect the lives as well as livelihoods of too many Gainesville residents. Black residents in particular face higher rates of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, a problem worsened in east Gainesville by barriers to getting health care.
City Commissioner Gigi Simmons is serving her first term representing District 1, which includes east Gainesville, downtown and the Porters neighborhood where she grew up. Even before she was elected to the job, she was a community advocate who worked on such efforts as bringing GED classes, voter registration drives and an expanded crime watch program to the neighborhood.
We all know that Gainesville is home to a beautiful and vibrant community. Today, the community continues to struggle, combating COVID-19 and the other challenges this past year has thrown at us.
As city commissioner I have worked hard to keep Gainesville safe during these trying times. While there is still much work to be done, I am proud of our city’s resilience and confident that the work we are doing will have a positive impact beyond the present circumstances.
Disadvantaged communities are suffering most at the hands of this virus. African Americans and Latinos are twice as likely to be hospitalized due to severe COVID-19 symptoms.
The Gainesville Sun Editorial Board
Life expectancy shouldn’t be determined by someone’s ZIP code. But where a person lives often dictates whether they have access to health care, which can make the difference in whether conditions get treated before they become life-threatening.
Residents of the 32609 and 32641 ZIP codes are much more likely to have an avoidable hospitalization than people living in other parts of Alachua County. The two ZIP codes also have the county’s highest rates for emergency room visits for dental and mental health issues, according to the 2020 Alachua County Community Health Assessment.
The two ZIP codes cover much of east Gainesville, including neighborhoods east of Waldo Road that lack urgent care centers or free-standing clinics other than the Alachua County Health Department. A survey of more than 1,000 residents of the area found that residents faced problems getting health care caused by high costs, a lack of insurance, transportation issues an