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Fauci says COVID-19 pandemic revealed ‘undeniable effects of racism’ in US

Monday, 17 May 2021 7:20 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 17 May 2021 7:30 AM ]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss the ongoing federal response to COVID-19, on May 11, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

Top US infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says COVID-19 has revealed the “undeniable racism” in the US as the health disparities have affected minorities during the pandemic, especially African Americans and Hispanics.

“COVID-19 has shone a bright light on our own society’s failings,” said the White House health advisor, noting that minorities were affected by the virus at greater rates because of “social determinants.”

Fauci pointed out that many members of these minority groups work frontline jobs that exposed them, even during the COVID shutdowns, and they can be more likely to be infected because of health conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and obesity.

He argued these conditions can mostly be attributed to social factors like “access to healthcare” and “availability of an adequate diet.”

COVID-19 'disproportionately' killing African Americans, Latinos: Analyst

Summary: The COVID-19 is “disproportionately” killing African-Americans, and Latinos, an African American journalist says.

According to analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black and Hispanic Americans died at higher rates than other races from COVID-19 in the United States.

"Let us promise ourselves our memory of this tragic reality - that an infectious disease disparately kills people of color - does not fade. Righting this wrong will take a decades-long commitment," Fauci noted.

“Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to healthcare and the undeniable effects of racism in our society.”

Data had shown New York City’s black and Latino neighborhoods saw death rates from the coronavirus nearly 15 times higher than others, highlighting social disparities in access to health care in the US.

“It’s really heartbreaking and it should tug at the moral conscience of the city,” Mark Levine, chairman of New York City Council's health committee, said last year.

A study showed US cities and towns with higher black populations account for more than half of all COVID-19 cases and almost 60 percent of deaths.

Racial disparities in health care and medical insurance, as well as economic and social inequality, are likely to blame for the higher mortality rate among US minorities, according to the report, which was conducted by four American universities and two health organizations.

“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," the US study said.