For weeks, medical experts have been warning of a racial disparity in COVID-19 cases, with African-American and Hispanic populations disproportionately seeing higher rates of illness and death.
Now, according to The Daily Beast, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control reveal the true extent of this racial imbalance.
"Among 1,320,488 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases considered by the CDC between January 22 and May 30, 2020 — of which only 45 percent had race or ethnicity data — 33 percent were Hispanic or Latino of any race and 22 percent of infections were among Black Americans, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released Monday found," reported Olivia Messer. "For context, those communities account for about 18 percent and 13 percent of the U.S. population, respectively."
While there is no broad-based agreement about that is causing the higher death rate among people of color, Rashawn Ray of the Brookings Institution has suggested they are left vulnerable by "structural conditions" in segregated neighborhoods that cause a higher incidence of pre-existing conditions in these populations.
