Coronavirus in the United States: African-Americans severely affected by the pandemic

Text by: RFI Follow

More than 383,000 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the United States, where there are already more than 12,000 deaths. The elderly are, like everywhere else, the most affected, but the black community is hit more severely than other sections of the population.

Publicity

The state of New York, the biggest American focus of the epidemic , does not publish statistics by what the Americans call "race" and ethnicity (Black, White, Asian, Hispanic ...), a component which usually makes part of the statistical landscape in the United States for all fields, from economics to education and health, and appears on census forms.

But other jurisdictions have chosen to publish figures that are alarming: in Illinois, blacks represent 14% of the population but 42% of deaths from the epidemic. In Chicago, 72% of the dead, while they represent less than a third of the inhabitants: disparities that "take your breath away, " said the city's mayor, Lori Lightfoot.

Blacks over represented among the victims

In Washington, 13 of the 22 dead were black. " I am very afraid of the disproportionate impact that this virus will have on African-Americans, " the mayor of the American capital, Muriel Bowser, said on Tuesday on MSNBC. In North Carolina, 31% of the dead were black, compared to 22% of the population. In Louisiana, where New Orleans is located, the disproportion is even greater: 33% of the inhabitants are black but 70% of the dead were.

There is no data at the national level, but blacks are overrepresented among the victims of the pandemic. There are many explanations: African-Americans generally live in the city center, in denser population areas, they are more likely to work in exposed professions, in particular in the service sector and can work less at home, reports our Washington correspondent, Anne Corpet. .

Greater poverty and poor access to care

Because of greater poverty, less access to healthcare, their general health is worse than that of whites. African-Americans suffer more from diabetes, asthma, heart and lung problems than other categories of the population, which makes them more vulnerable to the virus.

" We know black people are more likely to have diabetes, heart and lung disease ," US chief medical officer Jerome Adams told CBS on Tuesday. These diseases increase the risk of complications from Covid-19; Chinese and European experiences have shown this.

Himself Black, Jerome Adams spoke of his own health problems to illustrate the problem that affects his community. “ I said before, I have high blood pressure myself. I have heart disease and I have already spent a week in intensive care because of a heart problem. I have asthma and I am pre-diabetic. I illustrate what it's like to grow up poor and black in America ”. In short, the pandemic only accentuates disparities already existing in the United States.

Our selection on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

• Listen to Coronavirus Info , daily chronicle on the pandemic

• Explanation: The origins of the Covid-19

• Analysis: What strategies in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic?

• Practical questions:
→ What is the lifespan of the virus ?
→ Who are the vulnerable people ?
→ Quarantine, what are we talking about ?
→ How do you treat Covid-19 patients ?
→ How the Institut Pasteur hopes to find a vaccine

• Doctors' answers to your questions about the Covid-19

Find all our articles, reports, chronicles and programs on the coronavirus by clicking here .

See also our contents on containment .

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Health and Medicine
• Coronavirus
• United States
• Donald trump

On the same subject

Coronavirus: Americans prepare for the "worst" without clear Donald Trump strategy

Coronavirus: the White House had been warned of the danger at the end of January

Coronavirus: the situation in Louisiana particularly tense in the United States