The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly taken the upper hand in the U.S. The mortality is rising day by day as the country facing one of its darkest days. But the thing is there’s an interesting pattern noticed among the mortality rate. It is seen that there is disproportionate mortality noticed in the African-American population.
Although the reports are in the initial stages, it is more clearly stating that a particular race is vulnerable to the disease. As of now, the data suggests that 42 percent of the mortality is shared by the African-American population. Another incomplete report by the CDC also suggests that African-American account for 33 percent of Total hospitalizations across 14 states. And the data suggests that it can be more intense towards southern parts of the country where the population of people is more. While the entire data is yet given a clearer picture, claims are being made to release data based on the affection of races. This will help us understand who is the most vulnerable population and thereby helping them in the best possible way
The reasons
While we know clearly that a particular race of mixed population is suffering badly. Therefore, we need to analyze the possible reason behind this vulnerable population.
Firstly, it is seen that this particular class of people is probably more exposed to the virus. The reason being most of the people do not stay indoors. This is because most of the African-American population work in essential areas such as health, education, public transits, etc. In addition, most African-Americans prefer public transport to go to their workplaces. Therefore, this exposes the population more to the virus, thereby increasing morbidity. It is also seen that most African- American population is said to resort in rented houses accompanied by crowded populations, which again raises the bars of exposure.
Secondly, we should see that most African-Americans suffer from secondary health conditions. We already know that COVID-19 becomes highly fatal in people with secondary health conditions. And such health conditions are mostly shared by the African- American population. This includes diabetes, hypertension, and other cardiovascular diseases. In addition, we also saw the fact air pollution elevates COVID-19 exponentially. And it is also seen that the African-American population tends to live in places where is there is more air contamination. This may also act as a predisposing factor in increased mortality.
And the last reason is that most African- American populations do not have access to health insurance or have inadequate health insurance. This is due to the fact that, statistically, African-Americans need to spend more of their income from their pockets to get insured. In addition, 20 percent of the population lives in poverty compared to 10 percent of the white population. While this lack of preventive care is making the population vulnerable to the disease. It is also seen that African-American people have developed distrust over the medical establishment due to previous incidents like the Tuskegee experiment.
The future
Therefore, distrusts, long-standing discrimination, lack of health aids, sophisticated lifestyle, health burden all are making a particular race of people more vulnerable. While the entire data is yet to roll in the future. It might possibly help us to understand more about the disease and the population as well.
