Why African Americans are hit so much worse by Corona
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As of: 12:37 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
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“Almost 70 percent of all deaths are Latinos and African Americans”
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The number of infected people in the US is flattening slightly, but the death toll remains high. A large proportion of Latinos and African Americans are among the deceased. US correspondent Steffen Schwarzkopf explains why.
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At first it was said that the corona virus made no distinction between poor, rich, white or black. Data from the USA now put this into doubt. The differences in the number of infections and deaths are downright terrifying.
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AWhen the corona virus began to make its way through the world, some believed that “great leveler” out. Rich and poor are equally at risk, regardless of skin color, religion, sexuality or political color.
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In Louisiana (here: New Orleans), African Americans account for around 70 percent of corona deaths
Source: REUTERS
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An analysis of the “Washington Post“Now shows that this is probably not the case at least in the United States. The newspaper evaluated data from several local authorities – and concluded that the majority of African American counties reported three times as many infections and almost six times as many deaths as counties in which white Americans were in the majority.
Cities with a high proportion of African-American residents such as Detroit or the capital Washington, as well as the states of Louisiana and Michigan, are affected. In Milwaukee County, African Americans account for just under 70 percent of deaths – but only 26 percent of the population. Chicago presents similar figures. Why is that?
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Experts always come back to a basic problem in their explanatory approaches: structural inequality and the poverty that often results from it. More than a fifth of the African American population in the US lives in poverty – a share that twice as high is like the white population.
If you have less money, you travel less, the New York doctor Dr. Uché Blackstock in “Guardian” firmly. And since the virus coming from China was initially searched primarily for people who came from abroad, their mostly black patients from Brooklyn or Queens were examined less frequently compared to more mobile – and more often white – Manhattan residents at the beginning of the crisis and been treated.
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Another disadvantage, according to the report, is that African Americans often live in densely populated areas and work in industries where home work is hard to do.
African Americans are particularly at risk from pre-existing conditions
In addition, African Americans are twice as likely to have non-health insurance as whites.
This also applies to the likelihood of being ill at all in the long term. Health problems such as heart disease and diabetes are more common among African Americans than among other groups, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases.
Early on in the corona crisis, previous illnesses alongside advanced age were recognized as the main risk factors for a severe course of Covid-19.
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Anthony Fauci listens to US President Donald Trump during a press conference on the corona crisis
Source: pa / newscom / SARAH SILBIGER
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Fauci, who speaks to the press every day with US President Donald Trump these days and also contradicts him in case of doubt, is accordingly the “worsening of a health gap” in American society.
Trump also recognized the problem
Trump himself also admitted that the virus hits African Americans particularly often on Tuesday.
“We see strong evidence that African Americans are affected far more than other citizens of our country,” Trump said during a press conference. “It’s terrible … it doesn’t make sense and I don’t like it.”
Corresponding statistics will be published in a few days. Trump agreed to work on the matter without giving details.
“Alarming lack of transparency”
The civil rights organization “Lawyers’ Committee” criticizes the fact that the relevant data has not yet been published and accuses Trump and his administration of failing to do so.
There is an “alarming lack of transparency and data material” that makes it impossible for health authorities to record “the full impact of this pandemic”, especially for African-American communities, the organization wrote in a letter to Health Minister Alex Azar.
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In the meantime, hundreds of doctors have joined together in an initiative that is pushing for the publication of demographic data. Also there: the prominent democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. According to experts, the causes of the disproportionate numbers are difficult and can only be remedied over a long period of time. At least the numbers have already reached the American public.
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