ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Ongoing data show that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting racialized minorities, including Indigenous populations. Globally, Indigenous Peoples live in over 90 countries and represent nearly 6.2% of the world’s population (476 million individuals). Although Indigenous populations have endured pandemics before, their vulnerability to COVID-19 is compounded by a collection of long-lasting, systemic social, political, economic, environmental and health system inequities. This chapter describes some clinical, socioeconomic and environmental risk factors for COVID-19 and their interactions with the immune system. How and why some of these risk factors for COVID-19 are more prevalent in Indigenous populations and the role of systemic inequities in exacerbating them are also discussed.
