Coronavirus and Racial Disparities
“As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the United States, it appears to be infecting and killing black Americans at a disproportionately high rate, according to a Washington Post analysis of early data from jurisdictions across the country.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/07/coronavirus-is-infecting-killing-black-americans-an-alarmingly-high-rate-post-analysis-shows/?arc404=true
The fact that African-Americans are dying from COVID19 at a rate that is exponentially greater than the rate at which white COVID19 patients are dying should be no surprise to anyone who is minimally aware of the history of this country viz a viz black people…
The surprise is in the fact that the media is shining a spotlight on facts to which white people would ordinarily be totally oblivious and completely indifferent…
The Coronavirus disparities exist because of the existence of the underlying disparities that are facts of life for black people as individuals and for the African-American community as a whole.
You may choose any metric you like, re negative impact/effects, black people are on the tall end of the statistical stick.
There is absolutely no reason why this phenomenon should not be reflected in the Coronavirus body count…
The question is:
What, if anything, can/will white people learn from this?
04/08/2020 @ 9:17 am
Can or will? Can learn the same as from every other metric. Will learn nothing.
04/08/2020 @ 9:49 am
Agreed…
White folks will draw nothing from the fact that African Americans are bearing the statistical brunt of the death rate of this pandemic…
The silver lining of this ominous cloud is the dispelling of the myth that African Americans are immune to the virus and can’t catch the disease at all….
“Coronavirus outbreak revives dangerous race myths and pseudoscience
Most fictional claims about black immunity to the coronavirus are connected to a long history of contradictory but uniformly racist ideas.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/coronavirus-outbreak-revives-dangerous-race-myths-pseudoscience-n1162326
04/08/2020 @ 8:25 pm
I had exactly the same reaction as yours. One could list off a number of problems within healthcare and without which result in greater suffering for black and brown people in our society. I was surprised, somewhat pleased, that it received notice at all. My question is, as it persists, will the concern continue. Further, if Covid-19 were more deadly to white people, would the response be the same? If it were not deadly at all, what would the response be? If it can be found that there are essential differences between black bodies and white bodies, will the concern rise or fall? If the difference is primarily socio-economic, will concern rise or fall? I I wish I knew, and I fear it. I desperately hope not to need a respirator…while they are scarce.
04/08/2020 @ 8:44 pm
…rather, a ventilator.
04/10/2020 @ 9:43 pm
The Coronavirus pandemic is teaching healthcare insurers that being black in America is a preexisting or underlying condition…