More African-Americans than other racial groups in the United States are dying of coronavirus and COVID-19.

This is according to preliminary numbers from Louisiana, Michigan and Illinois.

Officials said the statistics reflect the disparities among racial groups to healthcare access.

The figures were reported by state and city leaders at briefings on the coronavirus.



Louisiana Governor John Edwards said more than 70% of the 512 people killed by the coronavirus as of Monday were black.

In contrast, black people represent just 33 per cent of the state’s population.

Michigan officials also said that the coronavirus took a disproportionate toll on African-Americans, who are 14 per cent of the population.

As of Tuesday, 40% of the reported 845 deaths in the state were African Americans..

Michigan has 18,970 coronavirus cases.



The data is preliminary and not national and does not explain what is causing the disparities.

However, community leaders and public health officials said it could reflect both higher levels of underlying illnesses that make African-Americans more vulnerable as well as possibly lower levels of access to healthcare.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, acknowledging the early data, said on Tuesday that black Americans were more likely to have heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Diabetes, heart disease and long-term lung problems are the most common underlying conditions among Americans hospitalized with COVID-19.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disclosed this in a report published on March 31.

Only one in five people requiring intensive care had no such health issues, it said.

QuanTez Pressley, a 33-year-old preacher at the Third New Hope Baptist Church in Detroit, said that issues such as lack of access to fresh foods and people crowded into small living quarters “make those individuals in marginalised communities more vulnerable to the worst outcomes of pandemics.”

Some officials at the CDC and various state health departments over the past week have privately said the data they are receiving from hospitals is inconsistent, which they attributed to the chaos of trying to keep people alive amid a pandemic.

They said there were instances where health care providers did not check the boxes that provide demographic information on the patients.

“If you end up in a situation where you are on a ventilator, and that ventilator is keeping your lungs working and your body is fighting off the infection, if your heart or your kidneys or your lungs are already weaker, you have a harder time fighting off that infection,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a briefing on the coronavirus on Monday.



Civil rights groups and some lawmakers have criticized the CDC and some state health departments for not publicly releasing details on the racial breakdown of those dying or becoming critically ill from COVID-19.

The CDC has not responded to requests for comment on the topic.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday stood before charts at a briefing showing the inequalities between white and black coronavirus victims in her city.

African-Americans account for 72% of coronavirus deaths despite representing just about one-third of Chicago’s population of 2.7 million.

“Those numbers take your breath away,” said Lightfoot. “This is a call to action moment for all of us.”

Lightfoot demanded that doctors and other hospital staff take the time to fill out paperwork so that leaders could better understand the pandemic.

“It starts out with the disparity that has already existed in health care provision for people of colour. We already started out with an unequal system of healthcare,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said on Monday.

“It gets massively exacerbated when you bring on something like COVID-19.”

Overall in the United States, there were at least 397,000 confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 12,819 deaths as of Tuesday night, according to a Reuters tally of state and local government sources.

https://www.akelicious.net/coronavirus-killing-african-americans-more-than-others/

As a black man you just have to take advantage of this chronic _ work at the Frontline _ make some money and send home .

This is really serious.

Some people somewhere using corona virus to clear some people and some races

For those always against America in favor of China because you were denied Visa... hope you are enjoying your Chinese virus!

Oin

una never see anything wait till China takes over the world then the black man will see himself

I thought they said the virus does not affect the Black man
Rubbish!!

I'm not surprised about this. Go to any state in the US, the slums and ghettos are all inhabited by blacks. To crown it all, they lack simple hygiene with up to 10 persons sharing a very small apartment.
They are the kings and queens of takeouts, as they barely cook, they depend on junk and canned foods which are major cause of several health challenges they face on a daily.

The guy above me said my mind.