Authored by: Alexander Bryan, Jillian Diuguid-Gerber, Nichola J. Davis, Dave A. Chokshi, Sandro Galea
In recent months, states and municipalities have begun releasing data on COVID-19 infections and death that reveal profound racial disparities. In Louisiana, Black patients account for 57 percent of COVID-19 deaths, while making up only 33 percent of the total population. In Wisconsin, Hispanic patients constitute 12 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases, but only 7 percent of the total population. In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the US, age-adjusted mortality rates are more than double for Black and Hispanic patients (243.6 and 237.7 per 100,000) compared to white and Asian patients (121.5 and 109.4 per 100,000).
In the past several weeks, the nation has been further shaken by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of police. A National Academy of Sciences study estimates that Black men are 2.5 times more likely to die from police violence than white men, and Black women are 1.4 times more likely to die from police violence than white women.
We argue that these disparities are linked. Indeed, George Floyd himself recovered from COVID-19. The data call for a reckoning with a simple question: Why?
Read the full piece on Health Affairs.
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