COVID-19 could hit homeless communities hard
So far, vulnerable residents in Los Angeles's homeless encampments have seen little outreach on the coronavirus front. (Claudine Van MassenHove/Deposit Photos/)Michael Cousineau is a professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California. Also contributing to this are Gary Blasi, Paul Gregerson, Michelle Levander, and Fareed Dibazar. This story originally featured on The Conversation.As the number of cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, continues to grow, the nation is on edge. Doctors and scientists do not know what percentage of the general population has been infected and what percentage of the infected develops symptoms.State and local governments and the federal public health system are deploying strategies to contain the spread of the virus and consider ways to mitigate the effects of the disease on vulnerable groups, the health care system and the economy.But amid all the planning and a growing sense of panic, the...