Update 4/7/2020 10:47 am CDT:
This Politico article provides a bit more detail regarding the racial disparities. A number of individual states, both red (Georgia) and blue (New York, California, Maryland) so far have elected not to release racial-demographic details of infections. And the laboratories which do the testing are reporting that they have incomplete racial data to provide to the public health data aggregators because large numbers of test forms come to the labs without the race of the patient specified.
More disquieting is that is seems there may be racial disparities in the provision of the tests:
One dataset shows that minorities appear to have more difficulty getting tested for coronavirus. A team of doctors at the Universities of Virginia and Pittsburgh, partnering with the data-tracking firm Rubix, used data from seven states and more than 103 hospital groups and patient advocacy networks to show that thousands of minority patients were not receiving testing for the coronavirus despite showing symptoms.Incomplete data could be one good reason that public authorities are not reporting the infection and death rates by race. I am wondering whether there also are social or political considerations behind the apparent reluctance to provide this information. Yet, socially and politically, it would seem to be worse to be caught concealing the data, only to have it come out anyway, than to report it upfront and deal with the consequences. And beyond the political dimension, there seem to be compelling public health reasons to ensure that minorities are (literally) being treated equitably.
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The headlines today in Chicago are that 68% of the Coronavirus deaths in that city have been African American. African Americans comprise about 30% of the city's population.
ProPublica reports that the racial disparity in Milwaukee County, WI is even worse: 81% of the deaths from a group that is 26% of the county's population. The ProPublica article notes similar disparities in Detroit and New Orleans.
A more generalized picture across the US isn't yet available:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks virulent outbreaks and typically releases detailed data that includes information about the age, race and location of the people affected. For the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC has released location and age data, but it has been silent on race. The CDC did not respond to ProPublica’s request for race data related to the coronavirus or answer questions about whether they were collecting it at all.The ProPublica piece notes that, in Milwaukee, life expectancy for African Americans already was 14 years less than for whites. It seems likely enough that the Coronavirus is preying on a population that was less healthy to begin with.
The ProPublica piece quotes a couple of public health experts who point to wealth and income disparities between African Americans and whites. I can think of a couple of ways (at least) that that poverty can lead to poorer health outcomes. One is that we funnel our poorest citizens into Medicaid, which is a very basic set of health care services. The other is retirement and nursing homes. In Illinois, some nursing homes have been petri dishes for the virus. My assumption is that both health care and social distancing are worse for poor nursing home residents.
ReplyDeletePoor people would also be more likely to live in crowded conditions, and if they had to rely on public transportation, it would be hard to accomplish distancing on a bus or train.
DeleteThey haven't broken it down by race, but most of the deaths in our state have been nursing home residents. Typically nursing homes are understaffed, due in part to poor Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.
Similar situation in Detroit metro area. A friend in Harper Woods wrote me a long email with his observations. It isn't just poverty, but mistrust, high rates of co-morbidities, not enough doctors, and, across ethnic lines, information dissonance. People seem to be paying more attention to hearsay and social media than to reliable news.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing like a disaster to bring out the differences between the haves and the never gonna gets. The 9th Ward i New Orleans was hit hardest by Katrina, and it still isn't all the way back (one grocery store operating), but Mardi Gras went on as scheduled this year, and everyone got the caronavirus, to the shock of Gov. John el Edwards who didn't know the virus was communicable. Next year Mardi Gras will go on safely for those who can afford it, and the 9th ward will still be recovering from Katrina.
ReplyDelete(Incidentally, there is a video making the rounds, of those who pass such stuff on, purporting to be Rev. Dr. Billie Graham's daughter explaining that Katrina was God's punishment for Madeline Murray O'Hara taking Him out of the schools. It is now being used to explain that God visited Covid 10 on us because He is still mightily pissed off about the late Ms. O'Hara (dec. 2001), but when the Chinese, Italians and Spaniards hear it was all her fault, I suspect their reactions will be, "Say wha'?"
That just goes to show how little the daughter of Billy Graham knows -I'm hearing from other circles that the virus is God's punishment for legalized abortion. God must have sent a different plague to punish us for O'Hair, who clearly was our collective fault. My guess for that plague would be President Trump, but the purveyors of these theories would be more likely to land on President Obama. Or, perhaps to keep it more chronologically aligned with O'Hair's heyday: President Johnson (because Kennedy was Catholic).
DeleteAll of us have at one time or another asked the question "Where is God in all of this?" to try and make sense out of stuff that doesn't make sense. That God must be punishing us for our sinful ways, is one explanation that always pops up in times like these. If so, he is awfully indiscriminate, since saints and sinners alike suffer. Others maintain that we should pray our way out of it.
DeleteMy take is that yes, we should pray, because that is our relationship with God. And try to listen, to his word, and to his voice in our hearts. But that he usually answers prayers through the work of people. There are sometimes miracles, that we can't explain. But the laws of physics and nature are not suspended, and God doesn't interfere with free will. There are too many puzzle pieces missing to fully understand things in this life. The older I get the more okay I am with that, since that seems to be the terms of engagement.
But God seems to be punishing the whole bloomin' world. Americans always think it's all about us. It might be because of some Chinese atheist we never heard of.
DeleteAs you all already know, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in an ICU and receiving oxygen but not ventilation. They say it's precautionary but as with any such official pronouncement, who knows? Is Johnson the UK equivalent of Trump. If he is suddenly gone, will there be others who can exploit whatever social undercurrents as effectively as BJ?
ReplyDelete"They say it's precautionary"
DeleteI read something somewhere about this that noted, 'That means that it's absolutely medically necessary.' I'm assuming that the PM is going in the wrong direction. I'm praying for him; we don't need instability during this time.
I read that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been put in charge during Johnson's illness. It doesn't sound like they have an office similar to "vice president".
DeleteYeah, I hope he recovers. Probably they're not taking any chances since he is a head of state.
It's the same situation in DC-it is hitting the African American community disproportionately.
ReplyDeleteA videoconference at Georgetown yesterday on moral principles for responding to the Covid19 economic crisis. The discussion included David Brooks and EJ. Dionne. They released the video of the discussion today.
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PyjNa79Lktg