COVID-19 is hitting black and brown communities particularly hard according to the Center for Disease Control data from 14 states. One-third of all Coronavirus cases are African American, while African Americans make up only 18% of the population of those states.
Those states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah.
CDC data indicates race and ethnicity categories have tangible effects on the lives of individuals impacted by COVID-19.
According to Dr. Stefan Flores, a New York City emergency room physician, Black and Brown communities where people come from low socioeconomic backgrounds or migrant communities are disproportionately affected.
“They can’t afford to miss a paycheck. They can’t socially distance. They can’t Uber or Lift to work, nor can they take work from home or Skype in or use a zoom meeting.”
Covid-19 has pushed to the forefront longtime health disparities among Black, Brown, Native American and other minority populations in the country. Health professionals have warned that black and Latino populations are at potentially greater risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, due to pre existing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and asthma.
National Institutes for Health infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, admits throughout his medical career, “that the health disparities and the minority community, particularly the African American community”, puts them at risk from Corona virus complications much more so than the general population.
Dr. Fauci pleaded to young and elderly people in the black community to “please try as best as you can to protect yourself”.
No group of Americans may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 than the incarcerated, senior citizens in assistant living facilities and the homeless.
Rep. Karen Bass, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is pressing for specific provisions to address the health disparities towards underserved populations. She wants the CDC to pay closer attention to these segments of populations because preliminary data are seeing far higher infection and death rates than their counterparts during the outbreak.
“I think it is completely unacceptable to say African Americans and Latinos have all of these underlying issues but there’s nothing that could be done,” says Rep. Bass.
In a recent interview on MSNBC Dr. James Hildreth says in the current pandemic we see the same pattern that minorities are disproportionately represented among those who are infected by the virus. Generally, because minorities are disproportionately burden with obesity, hypertension and diabetes.
Dr. Hildreth, an infectious disease doctor, and President of Meharry Medical College is no stranger to tracking mysterious diseases. He pioneered work on HIV research during an era when people knew very little about it.
According to Dr. Hildreth, it is remarkable that scientists all over the world are collaborating to find answers to COVID-19. ? “That’s very encouraging” from his perspective.
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