The coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the United States at disproportionately high rates, according to data released by several states and big cities, highlighting what public health researchers say are entrenched inequalities in resources, health and access to care.

The statistics are preliminary and much remains unknown because most cities and states are not reporting race as they provide numbers of confirmed cases and fatalities. Initial indications from a number of places, though, are alarming enough that policymakers say they must act immediately to stem potential devastation in black communities.

The worrying trend is playing out across the country, among people born in different decades and working far different jobs.

There is Donnie Hoover, a judge from Charlotte, N.C., who could not shake a dry cough that arrived in March. On the South Side of Chicago, LaShawn Levi, a medical assistant who rides the bus to work each day, turned to tea and cough syrup — “everything your grandma taught you” — to treat a headache and a cough. And in Detroit, Glenn Tolbert, a union leader for city bus drivers, was coughing so much that he got tested.

“This is a call-to-action moment for all of us,” said Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, who announced statistics of the outbreak in her city this week. African-Americans account for more than half of those who have tested positive and 72 percent of virus-related fatalities in Chicago, even though they make up a little less than a third of the population.

“Those numbers take your breath away, they really do,” said Ms. Lightfoot, who is the city’s first black woman elected as mayor. She added in an interview that the statistics were “among the most shocking things I think I’ve seen as mayor.”

In Illinois, 43 percent of people who have died from the disease and 28 percent of those who have tested positive are African-Americans, a group that makes up just 15 percent of the state’s population. African-Americans, who account for a third of positive tests in Michigan, represent 40 percent of deaths in that state even though they make up 14 percent of the population. In Louisiana, about 70 percent of the people who have died are black, though only a third of that state’s population is.

North Carolina and South Carolina also have reported a ratio of black residents to white residents who have tested positive for the virus that well exceeds the general population ratio. Black people are overrepresented among those infected in the Las Vegas area and among people who have tested positive for the virus in Connecticut. In Minnesota, black people have been infected with the coronavirus at rates roughly proportionate to their percentage of the state’s population.

On Tuesday, President Trump acknowledged the growing signs of disparity, and said that federal authorities were working to provide statistics over the next two or three days that might help examine the issue. “Why is it that the African-American community is so much, numerous times more than everybody else?” he said at a daily briefing on the coronavirus.

For many public health experts, the reasons behind the disparities are not difficult to explain, the result of longstanding structural inequalities. At a time when the authorities have advocated staying home as the best way to avoid the virus, black Americans disproportionately belong to part of the work force that does not have the luxury of working from home, experts said. That places them at high risk for contracting the highly infectious disease in transit or at work.

Ms. Levi, the medical assistant from Chicago who fell ill, thinks that her daily bus ride to work could have been the source of her exposure. Or, she said, she could have picked it up in the hospital where she works, at the grocery store, or from food served to her.

“I’m just not sure,” said Ms. Levi, 45, who has asthma and high blood pressure.

Longstanding inequalities also make African-Americans less likely to be insured, and more likely to have existing health conditions and face racial bias that prevents them from getting proper treatment.

Initial indications are that doctors are less likely to refer African-Americans for testing when they visit a clinic with symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Since the disease can progress quickly, researchers say, a disparity in testing can lead to considerably worse outcomes. A lack of early communication about the threat of Covid-19 and confusing messages that followed left an information vacuum in some black communities that allowed false rumors to fester that black people were immune to the disease. Some places ended up behind in taking measures to slow the spread.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/coronavirus-race.html

can rename black virus?

the virus is racist!

Why USA so terrible

if the people and the community themselves cant even keep it clean
they could only blame themselves
regardless of race and background, there will always be a percentage of sohai

👌

racist virus kuat jilat angmoh

This post has been edited by darth5zaft: Apr 8 2020, 09:36 PM

i thought because them crazy-ass always YOLO?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-81...y-party-LA.html

Please do not release malaysian data with demographic.

So coronavirus is racist?

which vroom in malaysia is the most over weight n have diabetes

Which vroom got imaginary protector that dictate and decide everything.

according to data released by several states and big cities, highlighting what public health researchers say are entrenched inequalities in resources, health and access to care.

the first two lines got answer dy

1st world country my foot, they have the worst health care system. If you can't afford insurance they let you die lah and many people declare bankruptcy because of high medical Bills. Human rights my foot.

Black Plague/Black Death is already a thing, need another name.

Cos play basketball when they should be social distancing?

Potential racing

its important that BLM continue to stand-up and fight the police.
All law-abiding citizens around the world support your actions.
Never back-down or retreat.
We all lose, if you retreat.
where else are we going to get these entertaining cop video content?

vroom vroom vdoom

So virus target black lives matter?

The ARYAN CROWN virus!
Hitler would be proud!

So whites are chosen people by God?

Many here only read title. Lazy read the contents. I said before why area like New Orleans high death rate and also high number who succumbed were black, because they cant afford good medical treatment in hospital. US hospital (and insurance company) give priority to whose insured.

This post has been edited by agigas: Apr 8 2020, 10:34 PM