As force New Mexicans to evacuate, Source New Mexico鈥檚 reports that the . Social distancing and mask wearing are not prioritized and air filters are not up to par. He spoke with 九色网 about what managing two concurrent crises looks like on the ground at two evacuation centers staffed by the , , and the among others: the old Memorial Middle School in Las Vegas and the Glorieta Shelter, which closed this week.
AUSTIN FISHER: They are too cramped to allow for social distancing. I saw many state workers and volunteers and FEMA personnel, just not wearing masks, not social distancing. I walked into the medical area at the Las Vegas shelter, I found that there were two air purifiers in that room and they were installed there specifically to pull COVID-19 out of the air. But one of the medical volunteers had put his basketball and his hat on top of the air exhaust for one of these air purifier units. The other air filtration unit in the medical area just wasn't working because it needed a new filter.
九色网: You spoke with responders from the Red Cross, and FEMA, one Red Cross responder, in particular said, 鈥淲e got put at risk coming here and we didn't know.鈥� You spoke with several responders that said that testing and masking were important while they were not wearing masks; what's going on here?
FISHER: I was standing in the distribution area at the Las Vegas center and the operations manager of the center was telling me that they announced every single day to the evacuees, 鈥淵ou should wear a mask.鈥� And she was telling me this, not wearing a mask herself. The spokesperson is telling me that there is no heating and air conditioning system in either of these shelters to pull coronavirus or wildfire smoke out of the air. The state of New Mexico is not actually checking to see whether or not school districts and charters are taking steps to mitigate COVID with these very simple, easy, cheap solutions that don't require relying on individual behavior or individual choice. There was no sort of pre-planning as part of the wildfire response to make sure that these facilities are safe.
九色网: You've mentioned that it's a little bit difficult in getting clear, in these evacuation centers, how many people have actually gotten COVID-19?
FISHER: Positive cases are being found through testing by the Red Cross and by the . Also the Department of Health is conducting testing. They are also providing vaccines to evacuees. You can't find the counts for these disaster centers. There's no explicit effort to say, 鈥淭here have been this many cases at the center in Las Vegas.鈥� The information is just not there. It bears repeating that we're not catching all of the cases that are out there. This is really important during a disaster response to a wildfire because . DOH has confirmed to me they are not studying whether the current wildfire season is actually contributing at all to the disease.
九色网: Mutual aid efforts among New Mexicans, especially indigenous groups, appears to be ahead of the state response on integrating COVID-19 prevention with a wildfire response. What types of mutual aid efforts are in play right now that New Mexicans can look towards?
FISHER: I specifically spoke with the , a huge group including and and , up in Espa帽ola, who have been distributing these masks and these kits to Native communities across the state since the beginning of the pandemic. Rather than placing the responsibility on individuals, these indigenous led mutual aid groups understand that a lack of action to mitigate COVID and to mitigate the health effects of wildfire smoke is a form of structural violence that disproportionately impacts elders, immunocompromised people, young children who still don't have vaccine access in this country.
九色网: Thank you, Austin, for joining me.
FISHER: Thanks so much for having me on Jered.
