WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK FOLKS DYING OF THE CORONAVIRUS?
– By Dr. Mary Bisbee-Burrows
The elders often used to say, that “when America gets a cold, Black folks gets the flu”. This statement sadly rings true today when it comes to the impact that COVID-19 also known as the coronavirus, is having on the Black community’s health. Recently released racial data about the novel infections’ high death rates on Blacks is extremely alarming.
COVID-19 is a highly infectious severe respiratory illness that is caused by a coronavirus, it is primarily transmitted via contact with an infectious material (such as respiratory droplets), and is often characterized by the following symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. In some cases, the disease may progress to pneumonia, respiratory failure and ultimately death. The virus is very similar to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), a coronavirus that killed thousands of people worldwide in 2002.
The COVID-19 virus was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. According to the World Health Organization, the virus most likely was transmitted from a live animal market in the city to a human. It is now being spread rapidly from person to person. Wuhan is one of the largest cities in China with over 11 million people residing there. The Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, is the only airport in the mid-China region to have direct flights to five different continents. The airport services non-stop scheduled passenger flights to over 109 destinations in 20 countries, which includes major cities such as New York City, London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Bangkok, Tokyo and Seoul. It was simply a matter of time before the virus was spread globally.
Once the disease hit America, some folks incorrectly believed that Blacks were immune to the coronavirus or thought that it was a condition exaggerated by the government to increase widespread forcible vaccine usage. Unfortunately, many of the beliefs are rooted on accurate and historical accounts of the United States exploitation of Blacks within the health system. One of the more heinous and infamously known experiments, the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” was conducted by the United States Public Health Services. The appalling project was developed in 1932 to study syphilis treatment for six months in this particular population. However, the study lasted for over forty years until 1972 with testing conducted on over 600 men! The subjects were never given a choice to discontinue the study, they were not treated adequately with penicillin,despite a cure being discovered in 1944, leaving many severely ill, dying prematurely, and inadequately compensated, among other atrocities. So, it is not surprising of the warranted distrust of the healthcare system from Black communities.
Presently, coronavirus is killing Blacks at a disproportionately alarming rate in comparison to the rest of the general population. In New York City and Chicago, Blacks made-up more than 70% of the COVID-19 fatalities. Sadly, this horrific pattern is trending to be the norm in most metropolitan areas. It is recognized that the majority of Black people tend to live in denser communities, have more co-morbid health conditions and tend to have higher occupational health hazards. Thereby putting this particular population of folks within a higher risk pool of succumbing to the pandemic. Much of the mainstream media conversation has focused on congregating as a driving factor. However, health disparities paint a different, deeper and darker picture.
One can not discuss Blacks having higher rates of disease 19
susceptibility without having an honest conversation about health inequities and structural racism. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion define the Social Determinants of Health as the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status. They are the health promoting factors found in one’s living and working conditions (such as the distribution of income, wealth, influence, and power), rather than individual risk factors (such as behavioral risk factors or genetics) that influence the risk for a disease, or vulnerability to disease or injury. In other words, neighborhood factors such as: food deserts (lack of grocery stores and public fresh food markets within close proximity), industrialized pollution (increased prevalence to asthma), dense and inadequate housing (lead based paint in older structures, increased risks of crime, social isolation and poor mental health), and affordability (red-lining and gentrification), are all circumstances in which one’s health is further compromised.
