COVID-19 Shows A Bigger Impact Where Black People Live
There is a disproportionately high level of COVID-19 infection case and death rates in states and metropolitan areas with large clusters of Black residents
an ecoWURD feature
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As the spread of COVID-19 continues to escalate and the United States has become the global epicenter of the pandemic, there is currently no available demographic data related to race and income on coronavirus infection cases and deaths. We are unable to get a better glimpse of who’s infected and who’s dying from this virus based on their race and income – despite a healthy stream of data offering insights into patterns based on gender and age.
The gender and age data, however, offer just a fraction of the total story. Available race and income data could offer even greater insights into factors which explain elevated risk for COVID-19 infection and morbidity. This dramatically changes the analysis and conversation on the pandemic. We already know, for example, that racial bias plays a significant, and destructive role, in the application of healthcare for Black patients.
These observations present critical questions in today’s pandemic environment: how will these bias trends present themselves or play out during the pandemic? It’s not a question of if they will – it’s a bigger question of how bad.
It’s too early to tell in any specific way, since we can’t identify patients by race or income. But, what we can see, based on the data collected thus far by ecoWURD, is that there is a disproportionately high level of COVID-19 infection case and death rates in states and metropolitan areas with already large clusters of Black residents or places that either match or exceed the Black population proportion in the United States of 13 percent. These are also places where those same Black populations already face systemic treatment bias in the healthcare system.
Read more here at ecoWURD.com
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