Coronavirus: African-Americans disproportionately affected in Illinois, Milwaukee and Michigan, data shows
The African-American community may be disproportionately affected in a few US counties, according to early data. While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not released data on confirmed cases and deaths by race, figures from Illinois, Milwaukee, and Michigan counties highlight this disparity.
At Illinois, a breakup of confirmed cases by race shows that 3,312 or 29.4% are blacks, while 3,141 or 27.9 are whites. Among those who have died, 113 or 41.2% are African-Americans, and 106 or 38.7 are white. According to the US Census Bureau data, just 14.6% of the population in Illinois are black, while 76.9% are white. As of April 6, Illinois has reported 11,256 cases and 274 deaths, according to information released by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
A COVID-19 dashboard created by the Milwaukee County in Wisconsin shows that as of April 6, 1,190 cases have been reported and 39 have died in the pandemic. Among the confirmed cases, 553 or 46.47% are African-Americans. An estimated 27.2% of people in the county are African-American, and 64.3% are white, shows US Census Bureau data.
A total of 285 cases are white, 16 are ‘other’, and 13 Asian. Data further shows that those in the 60-69 age group have been impacted most with 227 cases, followed by 224 in the 50-59 age group, and 211 cases in the 40-49 age group.
“COVID is just unmasking the deep disinvestment in our communities, the historical injustices and the impact of residential segregation. This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The overrepresentation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not just a happenstance. … It’s because we’re not valued,” Dr. Camara Jones, a family physician, epidemiologist and visiting fellow at Harvard University, told ProPublica.
Over 337,640 cases have been reported from across the US, and 9,640 have died in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the John Hopkins tracker.
In Michigan -- where the African-American population is 14.1% and the white population is 79.3% -- analysis shows that 33% of the confirmed cases and 40% of the deaths are among African-Americans. The numbers are 23% (confirmed cases) and 28% (death) for Caucasians. The data also shows an ‘unknown’ category under ‘race’ -- which comprises 37% confirmed cases and 28% deaths. The Michigan government's data shows that 15,718 cases have been reported so far and 617 have died.
Letter calls for data breakdown of cases by race
On March 27, five Congressional Democrats wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and called for monitoring and addressing racial disparities in US’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democrats said that the federal government must make a concerted effort to account for existing racial disparities in healthcare access. They said that a history of discrimination and marginalization has left some people of color distrustful of the medical system, making them less likely to seek out timely care.
The letter stated that the CDC is currently failing to collect and publicly report on the racial and ethnic demographic information of patients being tested for, affected and treated by COVID-19, and this despite the “clear vulnerability” of people of color in the pandemic. The letter urged Azar to take necessary steps to make this information available. It said that without demographic data on patients' race and patients, it will be impossible for practitioners and policymakers to identify and address disparities in health outcomes and inequities in access to testing and treatment as they emerge.
“Our concerns echo those from some physicians: that decisions to test individuals for the novel coronavirus may be “more vulnerable to the implicit biases that every patient and medical professional carry around with them,” potentially causing “black communities and other underserved groups …(to) disproportionately mis(s) out on getting tested” for COVID-19,” said the letter.
The Democrats said that while COVID-19 does not discriminate along racial or ethnic lines, existing racial disparities and inequities in healthcare access may mean that the nation’s response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community. Low-income people are more likely to have many of the chronic health conditions that experts have identified as risk factors for complications from COVID-19 they said. “For example, black and Hispanic adults are more likely to suffer from obesity and diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults. Asthma is also more prevalent among black and Hispanic adults and children. People of color and immigrants are also less likely to be insured, and many communities of color have shortages of quality healthcare providers, making it difficult to access appropriate and timely care,” the letter said.
The letter pointed to a study conducted by the CDC study which found that hospitalizations for seasonal influenza were more common in high-poverty neighborhoods. Research on past infectious disease epidemics has found that inequality during a viral outbreak creates a vicious cycle: poverty is made worse by the health and economic consequences of the epidemic, but it can also accelerate the spread of the virus, by restricting access to healthcare and preventative measures, it said.
“Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the US will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole,” emphasized the letter.