Why African Americans are dying at higher rates from COVID-19 in USA?
Wednesday April 8 2020
The new coronavirus isn't biased about who it infects -- so why does data emerging from some states suggest that African Americans are bearing the brunt of the pandemic in the US?
Experts say blacks are disproportionately impacted by underlying health conditions linked to poverty, face discrimination in medical care, and are more likely to work jobs that require them to leave their home.
"We know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease," the nation's top doctor, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News on Tuesday.
These chronic illnesses, which are in turn linked to poverty and structural racism, can lead to more serious forms of the COVID-19 disease.
Adams, who is himself black and has high blood pressure and asthma, added: "I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America.
"And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID."
Only three states, Michigan, Illinois, and North Carolina, are providing data highlighting infection rates by race, but the figures indicate that African Americans have an outsize risk of getting a case of COVID-19 so severe that it leads to death.
There are calls for more states to provide this kind of data so a more reliable picture can be formed across the US.
Two experts have suggested the virus is having a starker effect on African Americans because people in that demographic are more likely to live in poverty and to be in ill health, both of which can exacerbate COVID-19.
New data from Michigan shows that African Americans are 14% of the population (1.4 million) but represent 40% (247) of the coronavirus deaths in the state.
It is a similar story in Illinois, where 113 African Americans have died out of a recorded 274 deaths, representing 41% of the total figure.
![View image on Twitter]( "View image on Twitter")
The black community in the state numbers 1.8 million, or 14.6% of the population.
Other anecdotal evidence from around the country — where testing data varies from state-to-state — affirms this apparent racial disparity in the coronavirus infection and death statistics.
ProPublica reported from Milwaukee: "As of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County's 945 cases and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26% black." Within that figure, it is mainly men falling ill.
The trend was replicated in North Carolina.
In that state, 647 of total known cases — equivalent to 37% — were among African Americans, who make up 21% of the total population of 10.4 million.
The North Carolina death toll — which includes six African Americans of the 31 total deaths — was more in line with the population, making up 19% of deaths compared with 21% overall.
Dr. Lisa Cooper, a medical expert and social epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told US News & World Report that broader social disadvantage was the reason black people were worse-hit.
She noted that "as a group, African Americans in the US have higher rates of poverty, housing and food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, and chronic medical conditions, and disabilities."
Dr. Camara Jones, a family physician, epidemiologist, and visiting fellow at Harvard University, told ProPublica: "This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The overrepresentation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not just a happenstance … It's because we're not valued."
It is also possible, however, that the Illinois and Michigan data is skewed by the fact that the largest coronavirus outbreaks in those states are in Chicago and Detroit, which both have large African American populations.
A political campaign has been launched to pressure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to start collating figures to monitor and address racial disparities in the US's response to the coronavirus disease.
Five members of Congress, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, signed a letter to Alex Azar, the US health secretary, on the topic.
"Although COVID-19 does not discriminate along racial or ethnic lines, existing racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and health care access may mean that the nation's response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community," the letter said.
African Americans seem to be dying of the coronavirus at outsized rates, based on the few states providing data on the race of victims
- The coronavirus pandemic has hit the African American community harder than the general US population, early data suggests.
- Michigan, Illinois, and North Carolina are the only states that have publicly broken down the data on coronavirus infections and deaths by race.
- Experts believe poverty and a lack of healthcare are hampering the fight against COVID-19 in the African American community.
Only three states, Michigan, Illinois, and North Carolina, are providing data highlighting infection rates by race, but the figures indicate that African Americans have an outsize risk of getting a case of COVID-19 so severe that it leads to death.
There are calls for more states to provide this kind of data so a more reliable picture can be formed across the US.
Two experts have suggested the virus is having a starker effect on African Americans because people in that demographic are more likely to live in poverty and to be in ill health, both of which can exacerbate COVID-19.
New data from Michigan shows that African Americans are 14% of the population (1.4 million) but represent 40% (247) of the coronavirus deaths in the state.
It is a similar story in Illinois, where 113 African Americans have died out of a recorded 274 deaths, representing 41% of the total figure.
Chair of New York City Council health committee. Representing District 7, Uptown Manhattan (Washington Heights, West Harlem, UWS).
Michigan has just started reporting on coronavirus cases by race. African Americans are 14% of that state's population but 40% of deaths. This pandemic is reflecting--and exacerbating--inequality. NYC should publish this data as well, so we get the picture here.
The black community in the state numbers 1.8 million, or 14.6% of the population.
Other anecdotal evidence from around the country — where testing data varies from state-to-state — affirms this apparent racial disparity in the coronavirus infection and death statistics.
ProPublica reported from Milwaukee: "As of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County's 945 cases and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26% black." Within that figure, it is mainly men falling ill.
The trend was replicated in North Carolina.
In that state, 647 of total known cases — equivalent to 37% — were among African Americans, who make up 21% of the total population of 10.4 million.
The North Carolina death toll — which includes six African Americans of the 31 total deaths — was more in line with the population, making up 19% of deaths compared with 21% overall.
Dr. Lisa Cooper, a medical expert and social epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told US News & World Report that broader social disadvantage was the reason black people were worse-hit.
She noted that "as a group, African Americans in the US have higher rates of poverty, housing and food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, and chronic medical conditions, and disabilities."
Dr. Camara Jones, a family physician, epidemiologist, and visiting fellow at Harvard University, told ProPublica: "This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The overrepresentation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not just a happenstance … It's because we're not valued."
It is also possible, however, that the Illinois and Michigan data is skewed by the fact that the largest coronavirus outbreaks in those states are in Chicago and Detroit, which both have large African American populations.
A political campaign has been launched to pressure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to start collating figures to monitor and address racial disparities in the US's response to the coronavirus disease.
Five members of Congress, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, signed a letter to Alex Azar, the US health secretary, on the topic.
"Although COVID-19 does not discriminate along racial or ethnic lines, existing racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and health care access may mean that the nation's response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community," the letter said.