This post is an attempt at casting some light on how our dysfunctional political system actually impedes solving problems. In this instance the problem under discussion is one about which I have been writing for some time: the higher mortality rate due to COVID-19 among some racial and ethnic groups, blacks in particular. Consider two contrasting posts.
The first post is by F. DuBois Bowman and Marschall S. Runge at RealClearHealth. They attribute the higher mortality to systemic racism full stop:
Our colleagues across the health sciences must acknowledge that racism is a public health crisis. Instead of overinvesting downstream in the treatment of the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 and other diseases on people of color, we must have the forethought and discipline to invest in an underfunded public health infrastructure. We need public health expertise now more than ever to create systematic, long-term change. This starts with investing in prevention and education to improve population health, which will ultimately decrease health care costs.
Other than adding staff to public health departments, there is nothing actionable in their prescription. The overwhelming predisposition of such institutions is to do what has been called “admiring the problem”, i.e. investigating it, studying it, analyzing it, and complaining about it without being willing or able to take whatever steps are necessary to address the problem.
It contrasts with the views expressed by Connor Harris in a piece at City Journal:
The Covid-19 pandemic in the West has disproportionately harmed racial minorities, especially those of African descent. According to a United Nations report from June, African-Americans in the United States had twice the death rate from Covid-19 as other races, as did black and South Asian ethnic groups in the U.K. Death rates among black minority groups in France and Brazil were also markedly elevated.
Many have taken it for granted that these differences stem from poverty and racism, which force nonwhites into crowded housing and jobs with high disease exposure. For Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, Covid-19 “expose[d] what should have been obvious—that unequal access to healthcare, overcrowded housing and pervasive discrimination make our societies less stable, secure and prosperous.â€
But a September 10 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association by three doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York identified another possibility: racial differences in levels of TMPRRS2, a protein in cell membranes that many viruses, including coronaviruses, use to gain access to cells. The authors reported that in a sample of 305 patients at Mount Sinai, black patients had stronger expression of the gene that codes for TMPRRS2 in the tissue lining their nostrils than white, Asian, Hispanic, or mixed-race patients.
Some time ago I also pointed out a study from the NBER that reached similar conclusions: even when controlling for income, education, age, location and so on mortality due to COVID-19 is higher among blacks. I have also pointed out the difference in the ability to synthesize Vitamin D as a possible difference and one that could be addressed.
As long as we focus on admiring the problem and condemn potential action items out of hand, the problem will remain. That’s fine for those whose jobs depend on continuing investigation, study, analysis, etc., not to mention adding additional staff but not so fine for those on whom the burden falls.
