Ever since the last day of February when the first recorded death in the United States of COVID-19, the number of deaths have continued to rise and the news media has been all over it–giving us updates as the number climbs. Within a month after that, we are over 3,700 deaths and numbers are expected to skyrocket further.
Dr. Tony Fauci, the nation’s number one infectious disease expert (you’ve seen him on the news and at the White House a lot), said on March 29 on CNN that it is possible to see between 100,000 and 200,000 COVID-19-related deaths by the end of the crisis. But that’s not the half of it.
In early March, we posed the question if Black people were immune to COVID-19. But with the new numbers, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
As a matter of fact, the more and more research comes out, it seems that an alarming number of these deaths are disproportionately of Black people.
So is COVID-19 a virus that hits Black folks more seriously than it does people of other ethnic make up or is the virus afflicting those with health disparities, something Black Americans rank highest at? Hmmmm….
Wait…I hear the conspiracy theorists coming.
The deaths of Black Americans are being noted throughout the nation. In Wisconsin, as of March 27th, of the state’s 14 COVID-19 deaths, eight of the victims were Black. That’s 57 percent of all Wisconsin deaths in a state where the Black population is just 6.7 percent. The bulk of the deaths were in concentrated in Milwaukee which happens to be one of the cities with the highest African American populations in the state.
Now, take Detroit for example; another city with a high African American population.
As of March 29th, 132 people in the state lost lives due to the virus. Of that, “Detroit and suburban Wayne County combined account for 49 percent of all confirmed cases of coronavirus in Michigan – and 42 percent of the 132 deaths. That’s disproportionately high to Wayne County’s share of Michigan’s population, which is about…
17.5 percent,” according to a Crain’s Detroit Business report. Detroit has the nation’s highest percentage of Black residents at nearly 80 percent.
Dr. Teena Chopra, professor of infectious disease at Wayne State University, said underlying health inequities are leading to more serious cases of COVID-19 among the state’s Black population.
“Detroit is uniquely disadvantaged,” said Chopra during a March 30 interview on CNN. “Obesity, diabetes, heart disease; these all are underlying conditions that make (COVID-19) so deadly. Also, by the time we see (COVID patients) in hospitals they are already seriously ill. That’s because they are socially disadvantaged.”
That disadvantage of possible medical bias is highlighted by the case of Bassey Offiong.
Offiong, a 25-year-old senior at Western Michigan University, who was set to graduate with a degree in chemical engineering, died when, despite showing multiple symptoms of COVID-19, he was denied testing according to his sister. Asari Offiong told the Detroit News that her brother was denied test multiple times by medical staff at a Kalamazoo, Mich. medical facility.
But Why?
Whatever the reason, Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says this strain of Coronavirus is…
a threat that African Americans need to take particularly seriously.
“I think the biggest challenge is the fact that people of color, African Americans, start out with health outcomes that are disproportionately poor when compared to white Americans,” says Benjamin to the Undefeated. The highest risk, if you get this disease, is to someone 60 or older with chronic disease. With African Americans, you start with a population that is disproportionately sicker, and if it gets exposed, it will have a higher death rate.”
“The reasons for the health inequities include access to health care,” continues Benjamin. “…and differences in the quality of care African Americans receive. A lot of what makes you healthy happens outside the doctor’s office, so all the social determinants – including racism and discrimination, housing, access to transportation and education – are a factor. And I’ll say differences in individual behaviors that we all have based on our life experiences.”
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