African-Americans dying of coronavirus at higher rates, preliminary data
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[April 08, 2020]
By Brad Brooks, Michael Martina and Catherine Koppel
(Reuters) - The new coronavirus is killing
African-Americans at a higher rate than the U.S. population at large,
according to preliminary numbers from Louisiana, Michigan and Illinois
that officials say point to disparities in health and healthcare access.
The figures were reported by state and city leaders at briefings on the
coronavirus, including Louisiana Governor John Edwards who said more
than 70% of the 512 people killed by the coronavirus in Louisiana as of
Monday were black, a much larger percentage than the state's population
that black people represent, about 33 percent.
Michigan officials also said that the coronavirus took a
disproportionate toll on African-Americans with 40% of the reported
deaths in the state, whose population is 14% African-American. As of
Tuesday, confirmed cases in Michigan were 18,970 with 845 deaths.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Apr/08/images/ads/current/xamis_sda_FARM_2019.png)
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
respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-study/diabetes-lung-and-heart-disease-common-in-u-s-coronavirus-patients-cdc-idUSKBN21I3HM
published on March 31. 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 marginalized 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.
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![](../images/040820pics/news_G13.jpg)
Keith Newsome, left, Mike Williams, and Keith Gibson, middle, play
spades on St. Bernard Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., amid
the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), April 7, 2020.
REUTERS/Kathleen Flynn
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"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 color. 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."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Apr/08/images/ads/current/elkhart_grain_daily_sda_022614.png)
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.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas, Catherine Koppel in New
Orleans and Michael Martina in Detroit; Editing by Scott Malone and
Grant McCool)
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