Why African Americans dying at higher rates from COVID-19

WASHINGTON: The new coronavirus isn´t picky about who it infects — so why does data emerging from some states suggest that African Americans are bearing the brunt?

Experts say the community is disproportionately impacted by underlying conditions linked to poverty, and often faces challenges in accessing testing and health care. “We know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease,” the nation´s top doctor, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, told CBS News on Tuesday. These chronic illnesses can lead to more serious forms of the COVID-19 disease. Adams, who is himself black and has high blood pressure and asthma, added: “I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America. “And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID.

There is no nationwide data available on COVID-19 cases by race, but a familiar pattern of over-representation by black Americans has emerged in states or jurisdictions that are sharing the information. Sixty-eight percent of coronavirus deaths in Chicago have been among African Americans, who make up just 30 percent of the city´s population. “Those numbers take your breath away,” the city´s mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday at a coronavirus briefing. “This is a call to action for all of us. The trend is repeated in North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and the capital Washington. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told AFP the issue was also linked to social class, with black people more likely to work jobs deemed essential that expose them to potential infection.