Health Disparities During COVD-19

The faults of American healthcare have been put under a magnifying glass as COVID-19 sweeps the world by storm. The lack of cultural sensitivity training has similarly furthered strain in hospitals. While there are not any long term studies available on coronavirus yet, ineffective medical treatment across racial groups has already been established, “underscoring a broader trend showing that coronavirus isn’t an equalizer but a magnifier of inequality.”

Thirty percent of COVID-19 patients are African American, even though African Americans only make up around 13 percent of the population of the United States. In New York City, African Americans are twice as likely as white people to die from COVID-19. A similar precedent is found with another respiratory illness, tuberculosis, and its disproportionate impact on black communities. COVID-19’s disproportionate toll can be partially explained by the fact that there's a higher prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes among African Americans compared with whites. Immune systems are also weakened by stress and studies show that racial minorities are more stressed out than their white counterparts—racial discrimination contributes to chronic stress. Chronic stress is also linked to poverty which affects African Americans at higher rates. Our mission is to tackle the institutional biases in healthcare, and recognizing these disparities in availability and quality of healthcare is the first step towards rectifying it.