Health Care Gaps For Migrants & Asylum Seekers On The Mexican Border During COVID-19

<p>Migrants on their way to another country and people seeking asylum are often overlooked in health policy. During the COVID-19 pandemic as immigration and asylum processes stalled, thousands of people were stranded at Mexico's northern border. With limited health care and sometimes crowded and unsanitary living conditions, COVID posed a significant risk.</p><p>How Mexico's response to COVID-19 took into account the particular needs of in-transit migrants and asylum seekers is the topic of today's episode of <em>A Health Podyssey</em>. </p><p>Ietza Bojorquez-Chapela from the <a href="https://www.colef.mx/">College of the Northern Border</a> and Cesar Infante from the <a href="https://www.insp.mx/insp-overview.html">National Institute of Public Health</a> join <em>Health Affairs </em>Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil to discuss their research they and co-authors published in the July 2021 issue of <em>Health Affairs</em>, <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/border-health-and-immigrant-health">an issue dedicated to borders, immigrants, and health</a>.</p><p>In the issue, the authors examine COVID-19 health policy documents issued by Mexican federal, state, and municipal authorities. Exploring these documents — which were prepared between January and September of 2020 —they found that<a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.00085"> only seven out of 80 publicly available documents explicitly mentioned the health care needs of in-transit migrants and asylum seekers</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/border-health-and-immigrant-health">Order your copy of the July 2021 issue of <em>Health Affairs</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>Subscribe: <a href="https://feeds.transistor.fm/a-health-podyssey">RSS</a> | <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-health-podyssey/id1533852530">Apple Podcasts</a> | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3tAEbXdlzlcgjLTHfJMYqR">Spotify</a> | <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=576615&amp;refid=stpr">Stitcher</a> | <a href="https://podcasts