Coronavirus killing more blacks in US than any other group: Study
A new study in the United States has provided more evidence that the coronavirus is killing more African Americans than whites or other ethnic groups, highlighting longstanding disparities in access to health care and economic opportunity.
US cities and towns with higher black populations account for more than half of all COVID-19 cases and almost 60 percent of deaths, according to the study, which was conducted by four universities and two health organizations.
African Americans represent 13.4 percent of the American population, according to the US Census Bureau.
Racial disparities in health care and medical insurance, as well as economic and social inequality, are likely to blame for the higher mortality rate, researchers concluded in the report released Tuesday.
"Social conditions, structural racism, and other factors elevate risk for COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths in black communities," wrote the scientists.
“Structural factors including health care access, density of households, unemployment, pervasive discrimination and others drive these disparities, not intrinsic characteristics of black communities or individual-level factors," they wrote.
"Collectively, these data demonstrate significantly higher rates of COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths in disproportionately black counties compared to other counties, as well as greater diabetes diagnoses, heart disease deaths, and cerebrovascular disease deaths in unadjusted analyses," the authors concluded.
Early data from US states suggested that African Americans are more likely to die from COVID-19.
Experts say racism in the US has led to a lack of investment in black communities and worse health care for the population in general.
“A pandemic just magnifies the disparities in healthcare that many communities of color face,” said Dr. Summer Johnson McGee, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven.
The US has the world’s highest coronavirus death toll and infections, with more than 70,000 deaths and over 1,212,000 cases.
A new projection by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation shows that COVID-19 deaths in the United States could reach about 135,000 by early August as social-distancing measures are relaxed -- nearly double its previous forecast.
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