Minorities could be at higher risk during the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s why
People of color across the United States could be at a disadvantage as the number of coronavirus cases continues to climb and communities struggle to “flatten the curve,” according to social justice leaders and public health experts.
A lack of access to quality health care, insurance and essential resources as well as underlying health conditions are to blame.
“When there is a crisis or a challenge, it really accentuates at the margins,” Dr. Renee Crichlow of the University of Minnesota told Twin Cities PBS.
Underlying disease
The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning research and advocacy group, points to “structural and environmental racism” as contributing factors to the high number of chronic health conditions in people of color.
According to its data, 24 percent of American Indians/Alaska Natives and 18 percent of Black Americans have asthma.
Another 18 percent of American Indians/Alaska Natives, 15 percent of Black Americans and 12 percent of Hispanic and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Americans have diabetes.
Obesity, HIV/AIDS and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are also more common in minority communities, its data shows.
Dr. Melissa Clarke, former assistant dean in the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., attributes those disproportionate rates in part to “stressors faced by people of color” — such as racism and poverty, USA Today reported.
“Clarke said it’s not that people of color are more vulnerable to getting the virus, but they’re more vulnerable to having more severe manifestations, which can lead to hospitalization and death,” according to USA Today.
Lack of health care
In the United States, the highest number of uninsured individuals are Latinos at 17.8%, according to the research institute Salud America! By comparison, about 5.9% percent of whites do not have health insurance.
“This inequity in full health coverage can lead to families choosing not to go to the doctor, getting routine check-ups, and, in this case, receiving the best possible care during this pandemic outbreak,” Salud America! said.
Dr. Barbara Taylor, an associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, echoed that in an article published by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“Those who fear a high bill may delay seeking care, a wait that could cause medical complications,” Taylor said.
The same applies to those with insurance — between 16 and 20 percent of blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians didn’t see a doctor in 2018 because of the cost, data compiled by the Center for American Progress shows.
Impact on Native Americans
As sovereign nations, Native American tribes in the U.S. face different challenges during an outbreak like the novel coronavirus pandemic.
For example, ABC News reported the federal government earmarked $40 million in response to the virus for tribes to use on “epidemiology, public health preparedness, infection control, education and other things.”
But the agency overseeing the tribes’ health and medical care isn’t the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s the Indian Health Service — and “there’s no mechanism” for the CDC to get that money to the IHS, according to ABC News.
The AAMC found Native Americans are also “19 times more likely than white people to lack indoor plumbing,” which makes the frequent hand washing recommended by health officials more difficult.
A lack of testing adds to the challenges already facing these communities, USA Today reported, pointing to the great distance between reservations and large health care facilities where testing for COVID-19 is available.
Lessons from the last pandemic
During the H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic in 2009-2010, the National Center for Biotechnology Information confirmed there were certain “racial-ethnic disparities” in the impact of the virus.
While research did not show any differences in “health care-seeking behavior,” it did reveal a higher hospitalization rate and a higher number of child deaths than expected for minority groups.
According to the Center for American Progress, experts attributed those figures in part to “urban crowding, reliance on public transportation, absence of paid sick leave and language barriers” among people of color.
Those same issues threaten to exacerbate this year’s pandemic, the center said.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, county officials have already reported a disproportionate number of cases among African-American residents, according to the Charlotte Observer.
About one-third of the population in Charlotte is black, U.S. Census data shows, but black residents accounted for more than 40% of the city’s confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Saturday.
“We’re definitely going to have to really wrap our proverbial arms around our most high-risk communities,” Charlotte City Council member Braxton Winston told the Observer. “That is going to be so important in flattening the overall curve ... Equity should really inform us of segments of our population that could be most disproportionately affected by this.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Minorities could be at higher risk during the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s why."
