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rmrd0000 — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 13:49:43 +0000

In reply to The Coronavirus Doesn’t Have a Social Message

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With African-Americans, we see by far the biggest discrepancy. At 13 percent of the national population, they make up 32 percent of the deaths. In some places, the disproportion is staggering: In Chicago, over 70 percent of deaths have been black, with 30 percent of the population. In Michigan, black people make up a staggering 40 percent of deaths, with a mere 14 percent share of the population. There are big differences between New York City, for example, and Chicago. There’s only one state where African-American death rates are lower than their population share: Minnesota.

What are we to make of this? The legacy of segregation, poverty, and discrimination has made African-Americans more vulnerable to many diseases — and it is sadly no huge surprise that this is true of this virus, as well. Class, which is related to but not identical to race, also looms large. A 2012 study attributed 80 percent of the difference in life expectancy between white and black men to socioeconomics. And those particularly at risk right now are those emergency workers, bus drivers, grocery workers, Amazon warehouse laborers, post office clerks who have to deal with infectious items and people all day long. And the biggest risk factor for COVID-19 — obesity — is higher among African-Americans (49.6 percent are overweight) than whites (42.2 percent). Not all of this is related to poverty: “Obesity prevalence was higher in the highest income group than in the lowest income group among non-Hispanic black men.”

Could be that Sullivan has a thou hast eyes but thou cannot see thing going on. Sullivan is a writer, not a physician or epidemiologist.

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