Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

Well the ugly issue to surface in the media today, is the differential rates of infections and deaths depending on race. Apparently 70% of deaths in Chicago are black, although they only make up 30% of the population, taking other races out of the equation, apparently the death rate in the black population is five times that of the white population!

Other areas of the US are reporting racial disparities. From an NYT article published today: "... North Carolina and South Carolina also have reported a ratio of black residents to white residents who have tested positive for the virus that well exceeds the general population ratio. Black people are overrepresented among those infected in the Las Vegas area and among people who have tested positive for the virus in Connecticut. ..."

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

Since black folks tend to mainly socialize with other black folks, I can see such community spread causing a disparity. And, at least comparing working class blacks to middle class whites, it seems blacks tend to consume less news and may be 'behind the curve' in terms of practicing social distancing.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

I think you will find the reason is nothing to do with being "behind the curve" but a health issue. African American adults are more likely to have problems with diabetes and kidney failure . The more health problems you gave the harder it is to fight Covid-19.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

I guess I still don't know if those pre-existing conditions make one more likely to contract/test positive for the virus or just more likely to die from it.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

Also, I believe more blacks live in multi-generational households (like Italy?) thus putting seniors at risk. Historically, older blacks have had lower suicide rates than older whites, since they tend to have stronger community ties and less social isolation. But less atomization and isolation may mean greater risk in the current situation.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

Many low-paid people are in jobs which don't allow social distancing, and they can't afford to miss work- they only get paid to stay home once they test positive for the virus.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

There seems to be a general reluctance in the US to recognize that social distancing applies to family members too, not just strangers, acquaintances, coworkers, and neigbours, unlike the UK where it has been clear for a number of weeks that elderly people should shut themselves away whenever possible, and have either relatives, neighbours, or a commercial grocery delivery service, bring groceries to their doorstep, and that is what my mother is doing.

Whereas in the US, families seem to be commonly using the time when the schools are out to have the grand kids hang out with grandma and grandpa - that is certainly what a couple of my FB friends are doing, and similar to your observation about multi-generational homes, I suspect that this is more true of black families than white. Also Mrs P had to more or less tell her parents not to come to visit.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

Let me be clear, I'm not suggesting that young people take up vaping. I only advocate it as a method to help people stop smoking. It's comes down to harm reduction. Vaping just isn't comparable to smoking in terms of health risk. You said that countries such as the UK/US where young people are more likely to vape instead of smoke might have a higher risk, whereas in reality it's the opposite; countries where people are more likely to smoke tobacco have a far, far greater risk. See the NHS advice page here: https://www.nhs.uk/smokefree/help-an...e/e-cigarettes

The lung damage cases in the US were from illegal THC cartridges with vitamin E acetate, which is toxic when inhaled.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

I heard this the other day, from a black client I was talking with, that I suspect is far from unique either locally or across the US. A relative of hers works as a barber, and of course his barber's shop has been ordered closed for the past several weeks, even before the NC lock-down was announced. .... But he has been doing good business cutting hair at his clients' homes!!!! :blink:

Presumably this is some combination of "not getting reliable news", "not understanding the instructions and/or the seriousness of the situation", or for whatever reason thinking that the advice and instructions don't apply to them. :unsure:

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

There is lots of evidence to suggest that there is a linkage between:
- asthma
- diabetes
- uncontrolled hypertension
- heart disease
- COPD
and susceptibility to Covid-19.

The Surgeon General noted in a speech yesterday that all of these diseases are far more common in the black community than is generally true in the US and ascribed the vastly higher death rate from Covid-19 among black Americans to these diseases. He also discussed societal factors such as the lower rate of health insurance in the black community, the higher prevalence of service jobs that are most likely exposed the the disease and the poor state of healthcare in the black community as further contributing factors that have resulted in what we're seeing. The same was certainly true other respiratory disease like the H1N1 swine flu pandemic a decade ago.

I haven't seen any evidence that the infection rate among black Americans is higher than prevailing infection rates, but such data may in fact exist.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

Very true. Amazon for example, basically impossible to social distance in a busy fulfillment center.

Here in Canada if you make 2,000 a month or less, your better off if you do get laid off, the government is providing 2,000 a month for those who lost their job due to COVID, and at typical hours per week and hourly wage for grocery store, fast food type jobs, those on CERB are making more not working than these lower paid workers still working in fast food, grocery stores etc.

Yeah grocery stores upped the pay $2/hr but what they failed to mention is they also cut stores hours and overall many employees lost hours, so they are making less despite being paid $2/hr more.

Re: Coronavirus and Health status
 

I can add an extra anecdotal spin to this. I work in a supermarket which serves a moderately affluent area with about a 75/25 split of white/ black people living there. I regularly see Instacart grocery shoppers in the store, doing the online orders as app-based gig work. Until the virus hit, their racial profile roughly matched that of the overall population.

That’s all changed in the last few weeks. Not only are there, naturally, FAR more gig workers doing other people’s shopping, but they are almost all black now. My guess is that the previous pool of shoppers were largely doing it as an extra household income - something fun and easy to do to save up for that special vacation or new car. But in these times, anyone with an otherwise livable household income, probably from a partner with a nice, safe-because-teleworking-now office job, has stopped. And by that, I mean the white people (and by people, I mostly mean women, as that’s who was mostly doing this job before).

The huge influx of new shoppers, both men and women now, is probably from people laid off from other restaurants and other service sector jobs. Their ability to access a livable level of unemployment benefit will be much less due to it being based on a tipped minimum wage, and their chances of having had the opportunity to build a comfortable emergency fund are laughable.

So yes, this virus is going to hit the black community far harder simply because many of them don’t have the sort of careers with a stable income that can effortlessly transition to teleworking, and they have no choice but to continue to work on the grocery store front line. Usually accompanied by their kids 😔