A new COVID-19 study has revealed that black people are four times more likely to die from Coronavirus, as compared to white people.
This theory also applies to various ethnic minorities such as Native Americans, Asians, Latinos and so on – who are also at a much greater risk of death from severe COVID-19 infections.
While some right-wing groups have snatched this news as an idea to promote the racist supremacy concept that white people have greater immunity – but it’s absolutely wrong. The real reason is something that we have already known all along but most people refuse to acknowledge it.
Black people are running a 430% higher risk of death, but why?
Office for National Statistics in UK released a report that showed that black women were 4.3 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white women, whereas the black men had 4.2 times higher risk of death compared to the white men.
The data extrapolates to other ethnic minorities as well.
Such a stark difference pops up due to a huge economic gap between the white people and the black people. And due to being on the lower economic stratum, black people often cannot afford swift treatments or even test kits – raising their risk of fatality.
The reason why women of ethnic minorities have a higher risk than men is due to the skewed nature of patriarchy, where women’s ailments are not taken seriously.
An unexplained twist
But there is an unexplained twist here, according to the data from Office for National Statistics.
They normalized the data for different ethnic groups according to age, demographic factors, economic conditions, and so on. But even then it was found that black people had twice the amount of fatal risk as compared to the white people.
The report doesn’t fully explain why would that happen.
Coronavirus deaths are so different for the rich and the poor classes
But at least, it discards the idea that Coronavirus is affecting everyone equally – and it shows that privilege and money and social accessibility are still making a huge difference in who lives and who survives.
For example, while most of the world has a high number of elderly Coronavirus patients – India has a high number of patients under the age of 50. That is because most of the infected people are migrant labourers who had moved from rural India to the urban industrial hubs – and after the lockdown, they were left stranded without any money and savings while their landlords kicked them out.
Government was highly unresponsive and ignored the plight of the labourers as hundred thousands of them gathered at railway and bus stations to go back home. The helpless, hungry, and abandoned crowds were breeding ground for the Coronavirus and doctors estimate that India has nearly 4 million cases which haven’t been detected yet. And poor people dying of Coronavirus are not being reported as Coronavirus deaths, but as deaths due to heart failure or pneumonia – keeping the official tally very low.
On the other hand, it is only the rich in India who are getting tested and availing treatment.
America is even more grim
In Chicago, USA – black people comprised of 72% of the deaths even though their population is only 30% of the total city’s population. It was similar for Louisina and other states, where black people make up 30%-35% of the population but their deaths account for the 70% of the death toll.
Even in hospitals, black people run a 370% higher risk
The data from this British agency has collected data for the first four months of the Coronavirus pandemic. It showed that, even in hospitals, people from black communities were 3.7 times more likely to die.
Data would suggest that this was due to the marginalized people not being able to afford the overages for ventilators and other life-saving equipment.
Featured Image Courtesy: Daily Mail
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