As wildly infectious as the new coronavirus has proven to be, we should count ourselves supremely lucky that we pretty much know who is most at risk and therefore who deserves dedicated support while the rest of the population moves toward getting back to normal business.
In most cities where the virus has hit hardest and caused the most deaths, we’re seeing minorities bear the brunt of it.
One-quarter of New York City’s population is black, yet that’s the demographic accounting for the largest share of hospitalizations and deaths from confirmed COVID-19 cases. For every 100,000 people in the city, black people made up 92 deaths. For white people, representing 43% of the population, the death rate is nearly cut in half to 45.
Washington, D.C., is divided into eight wards, and the 8th Ward, which is 90% black, has the highest death rate, at 6 for every 10,000 people.
Officials are fairly certain that there is no genetic discrepancy that’s causing the racial difference but that it’s rooted in socioeconomic factors. Black people are more likely to work in densely populated areas, allowing the virus to transmit more rapidly. They have higher rates of obesity, hypertension, and asthma, which apparently complicate recovery from the virus. And there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that these communities are simply not following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines on preventative measures.
The CDC website says that “stigma” may be helping to “undermine prevention efforts,” which is to say, areas with denser black populations aren’t seeing as much hand washing and social distancing as needed.
A Washington Post story on Friday profiled Washington’s 8th Ward, which is overseen by Councilman Trayon White:
“‘First, it was something from China, something overseas, something black people don’t get, something young people don’t get,’ White said, listing the excuses he has heard for ignoring the virus’s danger. When he urges people to disperse, he said, ‘They go off and they come right back.’
“Similar frustration exists in cities such as Atlanta, where the mayor enlisted hip-hop artists to help spread the word about the virus’s dangers. Health officials in Baltimore are designing an ad campaign to debunk Internet chatter that the virus is not affecting the black community.”
Outside of racial disparities, we know that the vast majority of people who fall severely ill from getting infected are the elderly, and that’s largely because they too tend to be afflicted with underlying medical issues. The CDC says that 80% of deaths related to the virus have been in patients who are at or above the age of 65.
Now that we know who is most susceptible to succumbing to the virus and most states are moving toward reopening, it’s the perfect time to devote all attention and resources to those who need them. And those who need them are: impoverished minorities, the elderly, and anyone with an underlying medical issue. Instead of spreading ourselves thin, we could figure out ways to best help direct all our resources to these communities who are the most vulnerable.
No health professional will say that there won’t be more infections or deaths as states begin to reopen. There will be, but as we get the country moving forward again, there are things that can be done to keep the numbers low for these targeted demographics. They will need additional care and, where helpful, isolation. This has been proven to mitigate the spread of the virus in Florida, where the governor stopped visitations to nursing homes but otherwise only instituted a brief statewide lockdown.
That’s similar to the approach Sweden took, where only a few things were closed and the elderly were told to keep to themselves for a time.
It looks like this is what we’ll all have to adopt, lest we watch the economy continue to deteriorate to a point of no coming back. It’s not practical to ask that we all shutter ourselves in our homes until there’s testing for every man, woman, and child — plus contact tracing right down to every one of the 330 million people who live here.
The coronavirus has demonstrated a pattern. We should take advantage of that.
