Dr. Ed Zuroweste: What is a climate migrant, and how do we care for them?

Today, Migrant Clinicians Network’s Ed Zuroweste, MD, Co-Chief Medical Officer, published an op-ed in STAT News detailing the rise of climate migrants -- those who are moving because climate change has pushed their already-poor circumstances to the point of unlivable. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California, the dry corridor of Central America -- across the Western Hemisphere, people are driven to move for their safety and well-being. And health systems must be prepared for this growing global crisis.

Dr. Zuroweste calls climate change “the great amplifier: not just pushing our extreme weather to be more extreme, but also making our social inequalities even more unequal.” Those who are on the move and need help after a disaster are likely to be those who were already needing help before the disaster struck: those without the resources to address their health problems, and those who lack access to health care.  Health Network, he says, can prepare our health systems for the impact of a large mobile population after a disaster -- if we take the time, effort, and money to implement it.

Read the complete op-ed on STAT News -- and please share widely to support MCN’s work.