African Americans more likely to die from coronavirus illness, early data shows

APRIL 6, 2020 / 10:00 AM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO

African Americans more likely to die from coronavirus illness, early data shows

Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) - Early data from U.S. states shows African Americans are more likely to die from COVID-19, highlighting longstanding disparities in health and inequalities in access to medical care, experts said.

In Illinois, black people make up about 30% of the state’s cases and about 40% of its coronavirus-related deaths, according to statistics provided by the state’s public health agency. However, African Americans make up just 14.6% of the state’s population.

In Michigan, black people account for 40% of the state’s reported deaths, according to data released by the state, but its population is only 14% African American.

Many U.S. states, including hardest-hit New York, have not released demographic data showing the virus’ toll on different racial groups.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has not publicly reported data on the race and ethnicities of patients who have contracted COVID-19, the sometimes deadly respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

“Because we don’t have broad access to testing, we don’t actually know how many people are infected in the U.S.,” said Dr. Jeffrey Levi, a professor of public health at The George Washington University. “We only have accurate data on who is actually getting hospitalized.”

In a letter sent late last month, a group of Democratic lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Kamala Harris urged Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to ensure such data is collected and published.

The World Health Organization has said people with pre-existing conditions like asthma and other chronic lung disorders, diabetes and heart disease appear to develop serious illness more often than others.

That makes the virus particularly dangerous for African Americans, who because of environmental and economic factors have higher rates of those illnesses, said Dr. Summer Johnson McGee, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven.

McGee said she was not surprised the U.S. black population is experiencing a worse outcome during the pandemic. Racism has led to a lack of investment in African American communities and worse health care for the population in general, McGee said.

“A pandemic just magnifies the disparities in healthcare that many communities of color face,” she said.

Kristen Clarke, executive director of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said race data was essential information for leaders to have so that federal, state and city resources can be distributed fairly.

“We know this data is being recorded and not released to the public,” she said, pointing to the CDC’s form that health care providers fill out when reporting a positive coronavirus case. “They must release that data to help shape an equitable response to the pandemic.”

Confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases neared 350,000, with more than 10,000 deaths, on Monday, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has by far the most known COVID-19 cases with nearly twice as many as Spain and in Italy, but fewer deaths than in the two hardest-hit European nations.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN21O2B6

Coronavirus updates: U.S. death toll surpasses 10,000
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47 mins ago - The coronavirus death toll topped 10,000 across the U.S. on Monday as ... African Americans comprise more than 70% of COVID-19 deaths ...

‘Big disparity’: 70% of Louisiana’s coronavirus deaths are African Americans, governor says

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Updated: 7:51 PM CDT Apr 6, 2020

WDSU Digital Team
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NEW ORLEANS —
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday more than 70 percent of those who have died of the coronavirus in Louisiana are African American.

“Obviously this is a big disparity,” Edwards said at Monday’s press briefing, about the data.

Louisiana’s population is 33 percent African American, according to 2019 U.S. Census data. Orleans Parish, which accounted for a third, or 171, of the state’s 512 COVID-19 deaths as of Monday, is 60 percent African American. Jefferson Parish, which has seen 121 deaths, is 28 percent African American. Fifty-seven percent of the state’s deaths occurred in one of the two metro New Orleans parishes.
data dashboard

“Disturbingly, this information is going to show you that slightly more than 70 percent of the deaths in Louisiana are of African Americans,” Edwards said. “So that deserves more attention and we’re going to have to dig into that and see what we can do to slow that trend down.”

Edwards later said the administration or health department would seek to learn what the disparity “is attributable to,” in order to address it “as quickly as possible."

Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu remarked on the race data on Twitter, saying it showed African-American communities have “disproportionate health and economic impacts,” and that solutions “must address underlying inequities in our society.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...d3_normal.jpegMitch Landrieu

✔@MitchLandrieu

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f6a8.pnghttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f6a8.pnghttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f6a8.png
Wake up! Covid-19 doesn't discriminate in who it infects, but >70% of deaths in LA are African-American. Data point after data point showing communities of color seeing disproportionate health & economic impacts. Solutions must address underlying inequities in our society

https://twitter.com/emilymlane/status/1247257211979563010 …

Emily Lane

✔@emilymlane

The @LouisianaGov says LDH to release race data on COVID-19 deaths: "Disturbingly, this information is going to show you that slightly more than 70 percent of the deaths in Louisiana are of African American."

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2:08 PM - Apr 6, 2020
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The new data show hypertension was the leading underlying condition present in the state's coronavirus deaths.

See the breakdown of underlying conditions, some which overlapped in fatal cases, below:

66.40% Hypertension, 43.52% Diabetes, 25.10% Chronic Kidney Disease, 24.70% Obesity, 22.67% Cardiac Disease, 13.97% Pulmonary, 11.54% Congestive Heart Failure, 10.93% Neurological, 9.92% Cancer and 4.66% Asthma.

The LDH will provide weekly updates to these numbers, Edwards said.

For the latest coronavirus information, click here.

https://www.wdsu.com/article/covid-1...cans/32058042#

Louisiana reports 2,700 new cases and 37 new deaths from coronavirus

Why some people of color say they won't wear homemade masks

By Fernando Alfonso III, CNN
Updated 10:13 AM ET, Tue April 7, 2020

(CNN)The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that all Americans wear homemade face coverings in public to help stem the spread of coronavirus.

But Trevor Logan, an economics professor at Ohio State University, will not be following this guidance.

"We have a lot of examples of the presumed criminality of black men in general," Logan, who is black, told CNN. "And then we have the advice to go out in public in something that ... can certainly be read as being criminal or nefarious, particularly when applied to black men."

Logan is not alone in his concerns. On social media and in interviews with CNN, a number of people of color — activists, academics and ordinary Americans — expressed fears that homemade masks could exacerbate racial profiling and place blacks and Latinos in danger.

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Coronavirus sparks a 'war for masks' in desperate global scramble for protection


"I don't feel safe wearing a handkerchief or something else that isn't CLEARLY a protective mask covering my face to the store because I am a Black man living in this world," tweeted Aaron Thomas, an educator in Columbus, Ohio. "I want to stay alive but I also want to stay alive."

His tweet has more than 121,000 likes.

The CDC's recommendation on do-it-yourself face masks comes as the skyrocketing number of coronavirus cases and shortages of medical supplies have made professional-grade surgical masks all but unavailable to most Americans.

In an interview with CNN, Logan acknowledged that during a pandemic it makes sense to ask people to protect their faces in any way possible.

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Protective masks for sale are displayed in a store in Brooklyn on April 2, 2020 in New York City.

But it also makes sense not to wear them if you're a person of color, he added.

"This (wearing a homemade mask) seems like a reasonable response unless you just sort of take American society out of it. When you can't do that, you're basically telling people to look dangerous given racial stereotypes that are out there," Logan said.

"This is in the larger context of black men fitting the description of a suspect who has a hood on, who has a face covering on," he added. "It looks like almost every criminal sketch of any garden-variety black suspect."

What bandanas and other attire can mean for people of color in America

In the US, criminal justice and fashion have sometimes made for a deadly combination.

Bandanas, particularly in certain colors, are often associated with gang affiliation and violence, said Cyntoria Johnson, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University.

The Bloods and Crips street gangs of California have used colorful bandanas or rags as a system of identification, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD also describes the "uniform of Hispanic gangs" as including "a bandana tied around the forehead similar to a sweatband."

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Esper directs individuals on Defense property to wear 'cloth face coverings' when they can't practice social distancing


"People of color have to make conscious decisions every day about the way they show up in the world and are perceived by others, especially the police," Johnson said.

Racial profiling by law enforcement in the US has been documented by studies like the Stanford Open Policing Project, which examined 100 million traffic and pedestrian stops from 2011 to 2017 and found that officers generally stopped blacks at higher rates than whites. In recent years high-profile police shootings of black men have also raised fears of law enforcement among African Americans.

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A man wears gloves and a bandanna across his face while riding a scooter on March 18, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California.


But this nuance was absent on Friday when the CDC instructed people to wear "cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain."

The federal guidance also included a video of US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams showing how to turn a bandana, scarf or old T-shirt into a mask.

"Health equity, and the complex interactions between race and health, have always been an area of emphasis for my office," Adams said in a statement sent to CNN.

"I understand the concerns communities of color would have about being racially profiled, and am working with the NAACP, the NMA, and other organizations representing people of color to ensure no one is unduly harmed by COVID-19, or our response to it."

The CDC's mask guidance is an example of heterogeneous effects, said Robynn Cox, an assistant professor in the University of Southern California's Department of Social Change and Innovation.

"Just because something may work or be true for the mainstream (average), doesn't mean that it will also be true, or that it will work the same way, for different groups," Cox told CNN over email. "Clearly, there are additional costs that blacks must consider when choosing what protective gear they will wear."

When choosing whether to wear a mask is a 'lose-lose situation'

One organization all too familiar with America's troubled history with race is the American Civil Liberties Union.

Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, characterized the CDC's mask guidance as "one more instance of racial insensitivity that pervades the response to this pandemic."

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Here's what health experts say about face masks


"To date, neither federal nor Georgia state officials are addressing the racial disparities in access to healthcare, access to the internet and the ability to work from home. Black Americans are suffering disproportionately from this pandemic," Young said.

The CDC has not responded to multiple requests for comment. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's office also did not respond to a request for comment.

These fears about wearing homemade masks come as government data shows the outbreak is more concentrated in major US metropolitan areas like New York City and in the Southeast, where greater percentages of African Americans and Latinos live.

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Medical masks like these have been in short supply for weeks, forcing many Americans to make their own versions at home.


Black and Latino workers also are "much less likely" to be able to work from home, according to a report from Economic Policy Institute.

The federal mask guidelines failed to capture this reality, said ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program.

"For many black people, deciding whether or not to wear a bandana in public to protect themselves and others from contracting coronavirus is a lose-lose situation that can result in life-threatening consequences either way," Moore said.

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"Not wearing a protective bandana goes against CDC recommendations and increases the risk of contracting Covid-19, but wearing one could mean putting their lives at risk of getting shot or killed because of racially-biased targeting."

Even so, Che Johnson-Long, a black woman who works for the Racial Justice Action Center in Atlanta, says she plans to wear a mask in public.

"I will be wearing a mask because it can protect other people from what I may potentially have," she told CNN. "But what I will also do while wearing a mask is all the things that I'm already doing as a black person in Atlanta. I will text people before I leave the house so that someone knows where I am. I'll make sure to travel with someone that I know or to let someone know when I get back home.

"If I take walks, I'll make sure that I say hi to people so that they can recognize that I live in the neighborhood," Johnson-Long added. "I'll do all the things I would do if I was afraid of being stopped by the police anyways."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/us/fa...rnd/index.html

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