A Pandemic That Disproportionately Kills Black People Is Not a ‘Great Equalizer’

Politicians like to say the coronavirus does not discriminate. But we now know that’s simply not true. There’s a particularly obnoxious genre of platitude that’s become standard since the Covid-19 outbreak: The political call for unity.

In his first coronavirus address, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that the virus “will not discriminate based on national origin, race, gender, or zip code. It will touch people in positions of power and the most vulnerable in our society.” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo referred to it as the “great equalizer.”

As well-meaning as these statements may be, they’re not true. While the intent of those appeals for unity is to bind us together by the shared experience of hardship, the truth is that not all people are suffering the same. The virus is disproportionately killing black people at already alarming rates and exposing deep systemic divides. To some communities, the outbreak is an inconvenience; to others, it’s a waking nightmare.

There’s no comparing the luxurious sequestration of wealthy New Yorkers in summer houses on East Long Island with the horror unfolding in the overcrowded cells of Rikers Island, where the infection rates were as high as eight times that of New York City as a whole.

In calling the virus the “great equalizer,” Cuomo effectively frames the imminent tragedy that will take a toll on the incarcerated, the homeless, and other at-risk groups as an act of God rather than something he absolutely has the authority — but not the desire — to prevent.

The idea that the virus does not discriminate based on race or zip code has also been proven false. The distribution of cases in New York City maps almost perfectly onto neighborhoods where people employed in the essential services are concentrated as well as high poverty areas and places with large populations of people of color. As a recent ProPublica investigation observes, “In places like New York City, the virus’ epicenter, black people are among the only ones still riding the subway.”

According to statistics recently released by the city, black and Hispanic New Yorkers are dying at a disproportionate rate. Latinx people are 29% of the population but 34% of the deaths. For black New Yorkers, those figures are 22% and 28%, respectively.

But in other major metropolitan areas, the gaps are even starker.

In Michigan, black people makeup 14% of the population but account for 40% of the deaths. The population of Milwaukee County is only 26% black, but black people account for half of the confirmed cases and 70% of the deaths. Black Chicagoans makeup 29% of the city’s population but account for nearly 70% of deaths. The situation is similar in Philadelphia, where the majority of new cases are now black.

At every level, inequality will exacerbate the impact of the outbreak on the poor and people of color

It’s common for politicians to speak of the “most vulnerable,” but the definition of that term is often narrowed to include only the elderly and the immunocompromised. However, race and class have as much of a role as age or disability in determining who gets the disease and dies from it.

Aside from age, the presence of preexisting health conditions has been the primary factor driving mortality from the virus. Higher death rates in black communities during the epidemic are disturbing but probably not surprising to epidemiologists who have been documenting the intersecting effects of race and poverty for decades.

Poverty is a major contributor to morbidity for all categories of illness, including diabetes and heart disease, which can exacerbate the deadliness of the coronavirus. The average life expectancy of neighborhoods in the lowest 10th percentile is 10 years shorter than that in the highest.

Hispanic, Native Americans, and black people all experience poverty at roughly twice the rate of whites. In Wisconsin, Michigan, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and other states where we’re seeing racial disparities in coronavirus deaths, the black poverty rates range from 25 to 33%.

Environmental racism further compounds these rates. There are much higher incidences of asthma among people of color in urban areas due to higher levels of exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants, such as mold, car exhaust, and lead paint. This could partially explain the higher mortality rates among nonwhite groups in cities since the coronavirus affects the pulmonary system, and asthma greatly increases the risk of deadly complications.

Saying that the coronavirus “doesn’t discriminate” obscures the actual facts on the ground.

The other piece of the puzzle is the lack of access to health care. Around 87 million people in the country are either uninsured or underinsured, meaning they have plans with out-of-pocket costs that make receiving health care prohibitively expensive. There are racial and ethnic gaps in coverage, with the uninsured rate of Hispanic and Native Americans doubling that of whites. Black-white disparities are less pronounced but still significant.

As a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation points out, lack of insurance is a major barrier to receiving testing and treatment. Though legislation has been passed to expand access to coronavirus-related health care services to low-income people, there are holes in the policies that still could leave people on the hook.

According to the Kaiser report, many uninsured do not have a primary care provider, so they’re left with no one to give them critical information regarding where to go for testing and when to seek treatment. And in light of the financial insecurity the uninsured experience, many will forgo treatment altogether, placing themselves and their communities at risk.

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