According to a recent Financial Times/Peterson poll, far more African-Americans have suffered a reduction in their family’s income due to the coronavirus outbreak than whites.
The survey, conducted from 20 to 26 May, found that more blacks had lost their jobs since the outbreak began, highlighting the growing economic inequalities at a time Americans are protesting against the killing of George Floyd.
Some stand out significantly:
- 74 percent of blacks polled said their family income had gone down during the shutdown compared to 58 percent of whites.
- Over half of blacks polled wanted the shutdown restrictions lifted compared to 36 percent of whites.
- 98 percent of blacks said an additional check from the government would be important compared to 72 percent of whites.
When it came to those who say they are better off since the pandemic began, 41 percent of whites answered yes compared to 12 percent of blacks.
As we have documented week after week in the Trends Journal, since the pandemic started, COVID-19 has been a significant danger to a limited group of people: those over 80 years old and those with major pre-existing health issues such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and chronic heart and lung disease.
Since African-Americans suffer from these ailments at a higher rate than others, it follows that they are dying at disproportionate rates. Here is proof in the data:
- Although blacks are about 14 percent of the U.S population, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly 23 percent of COVID-19 deaths are black.
- According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, black adults are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician; non-Hispanic blacks were 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with end state renal disease compared to non-Hispanic whites; blacks were twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes.
- According to the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, 1 in 10 diabetic patients with COVID-19 died within a week of being hospitalized. The study also found that the majority of the patients had Type 2 diabetes and were suffering cardiovascular diseases.
- According to the CDC, almost 80 percent of intensive-care patients and 70 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had one or more of these serious chronic health conditions.
- Certain states show higher rates of deaths among blacks than others. In Georgia, almost half of all COVID-19 deaths are among blacks despite representing only 32 percent of the overall population.
- In Michigan, blacks make up only 14 percent of the population, but almost half of all coronavirus deaths are black.
TRENDPOST: In last week’s Trends Journal, we wrote how cities such as Detroit, MI, where polluting industries surround poorer neighborhoods and people are in not in good health, deaths from COVID-19 spike higher.
And, as noted in our 12 May issue, while Italy suffered the largest percentage of deaths in Europe from COVID-19, it is barely mentioned that about half of all deaths from the virus took place in the Lombardy region, whose capital is Milan, which has high levels of air pollutants.
In further supporting the factuality that the virus attacks the weak, it was reported yesterday that in Poland, more than 10 percent of COVID-19 cases have occurred at coal mines.Aaron Bernstein, professor at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and one of the research leaders, stated, “People who have been living in places that are more polluted… are more likely to die from coronavirus.”
TRENDPOST: Adding to the pollution problems, since people are afraid to take public transportation, government leaders and experts, including the CDC, are recommending driving to work rather than risk contagion.
In response, however, to the new dictates, Lawrence Frank, professor of Urban Planning and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, noted, “Promoting private vehicle use as a public health strategy is like prescribing sugar to reduce tooth decay… The level of vehicle dependence created by urban sprawl is a primary cause of carbon emissions and climate change, which has arguable even larger threats to life.”