I found this statistic astonishing and distressing. Two-thirds of the deaths from COVID-19 of individuals under the age of 65 have been of blacks or Hispanics. Business Insider reports:
An April report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one-third of the nation’s hospitalized COVID-19 patients in March were Black — despite the fact that Black Americans make up just 13% of the population.
As coronavirus cases have spiked across the country, this disparity has only deepened. A new CDC report found that Black and Hispanic patients represented nearly two-thirds of coronavirus deaths among those younger than 65. The researchers looked at data from more than 10,000 coronavirus patients whose deaths were reported from February 12 to May 18, and found that more than one-third of deceased patients under 65 were Hispanic and another 30% were Black.
They continue:
In an interview with Business Insider, Surgeon General Jerome Adams attributed some coronavirus outbreaks among communities of color to “social determinants of health.” Black and Hispanic people, for instance, are more likely to hold service-industry jobs that increase their risk of exposure. Black Americans also account for 17% of frontline employees, despite making up 12% of the US workforce, according to a study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
In addition, Black people more likely to have preexisting medical conditions that make them vulnerable to severe health outcomes.
I suspect, as intimated in the BI piece, that the issue is multifactorial. Another possible explanation is difference between the health care received by blacks as opposed to whites:
Blackstock said one of the main reasons for these outbreaks is that patients of color are less likely to have access to quality healthcare. Black adults are uninsured at nearly twice the rate of white adults, according to US Census data. Many Black patients may also be hesitant to seek medical care in the first place.
This is something I’ve mentioned before. The lack of trust that many blacks have for police officers isn’t limited to police officers. It extends to the health care system as well.
If blacks and Hispanics including those who are Medicaid beneficiaries are not receiving quality care, that is an ethical problem it is incumbent on the medical profession to address. Keep in mind that the medical profession is supposed to be self-policing.
I think there is an urgent necessity for investigating this issue and such an investigation needs to be unflinchingly.
IMO a combination of poor health, poor health choices (food, alcohol, drugs, tobacco) crowded living conditions, lack of and distrust of medicine and doctors, and other factors involved with living in an urban environment. I would be very interested in the ‘racial’ and sexual death demographics in suburban and rural situations. If the demographic disparities flatten out in those areas, then it’s the environment, not the genes. At a certain point you have to tell the race-baiters STFU because all they’re doing is trying to substitute a racial caste system with them on top for the scrum we have now.
Steve having been on the front lines of the thing might be able to provide a more detailed and better analysis than I.
Paper:
“For all minorities, the minority’s population share is strongly correlated with total COVID-19 deaths. For Hispanic/Latino and Asian minorities those correlations are fragile, and largely disappear when we control for education, occupation, and commuting patterns. For African Americans and First Nations populations, the correlations are very robust. Surprisingly, for these two groups the racial disparity does not seem to be due to differences in income, poverty rates, education, occupational mix, or even access to healthcare insurance. A significant portion of the disparity can, however, be sourced to the use of public transit.”
https://www.nber.org/papers/w27407#fromrss
Thank you for that, PD.
“If blacks and Hispanics including those who are Medicaid beneficiaries are not receiving quality care, that is an ethical problem it is incumbent on the medical profession to address. Keep in mind that the medical profession is supposed to be self-policing.”
They should receive care on par with other people on Medicaid. In some states Medicaid sets up barriers that make it difficult for pts to receive care. That is a political issue not a medical one.
Steve
Caused by the same thing as the shootings, institutional racism.
You see, life under oppression causes stress, which leads to outbursts of violence and hypertension, leading to illness and early death.
Only when white peoples realize that they cause these problems as naturally as clouds bring rains, can they be convinced they should just go away and leave POC to live in natural harmony.
It’s actually arrogance to pretend to be able to solve one race or another’s problems through outreach programs.
Would any sane person have suggested this approach to Capone back when he was shooting people?
Actually, IRT Chicago, much like crocodiles feeding in a dying lake, the deadly violence may be the result of a shrinking forage base. Less people, less business for pimps and dealers.
They’re left to feed on each other.
Since this was a medical related post you may like this Dave. This is probably the biggest single reason why medical studies have problems. Way too reliant on the p value of 0.05. Nice and mathy for you.
https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12874-020-01051-6
As I believe I’ve mentioned before when I was in grad school I used to supplement my income by tutoring psychology, sociology, and economics grad students in statistics. It convinced me to doubt all findings by psychologists, sociologists, and economists. This paper suggests I should probably extend that doubt to medical researchers.