The report shows that declining life expectancy among racial minorities and working-class white people before the pandemic “set the stage for the challenges we saw during COVID-19,” says epidemiologist Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University School of Public Health. Galea assisted in the peer review of the committee’s analysis.
People with underlying health conditions — often the very conditions driving the trend of premature deaths — have been especially vulnerable during the pandemic. For instance, studies have found that obesity creates a substantial risk for hospitalization and death following a coronavirus infection. And federal data cited in the report reinforce that the virus has not affected all groups equally. From Jan. 1, 2020, to Jan. 9, 2021, 4.3% of all deaths among working-age white residents involved COVID-19. That figure reached 10% for Black residents, 21.4% for Hispanics, 14.2% for Native American groups, 13% for Asians and 16.1% for Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.
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