Jay Thompson
Senior '20
Biology and Anthropology Double Majors
Statistics tell us that African-Americans and Black people in the United States are dying at a higher rate of COVID-19 and it is at a disportionate rate in comparison to other races in the United States. We are going to look at this health inequality in the past and how this is being seen in the current Coronavirus pandemic. As David Wallace-Wells explains “Most of the world is not Santa Barbara… many of the most punishing climate horrors will indeed hit those least able to respond and recover… problem with environmental justice… climate caste system… the problem is acute within countries, even wealthy ones, where the poorest are those who live in the marshes… an unwitting environmental apartheid” (Wallace-Wells 2019, p.24). It is important to note that climate change is a factor in the rise of diseases and pandemics and the same inequalities seen in climate change is in many respects parallel to the same inequalities we see in health. Factors to take note of would be racial groups representing essential labor, location of housing where Black people reside, over-representation in poverty of black people, and the existing health inequalities in the United States.
The current pandemic has highlighted the social construction of race, identified why health researchers should analyze the relationship between the mortality/morbidity rates of various races from COVID-19 and the comorbidities impacting black people in the United States. We hope that this data will provide knowledge on creating a more effective race inclusive health care framework for vulnerable communities to guide health professionals in their policies and training. To continue, the coronavirus in daily life connected with the things in Global Health by seeing social inequities in health and the Social Suffering of black people in the United States. It has helped with understanding the concepts and cases from historical global health. The key concepts to note are Social Suffering (worsening of a disease due to social barriers), Health Disparities (the differences between groups of people’s health), Critical Medical Anthropology (looking at social relationships when examining a medical experience), and Social Determinants of Health (factors that influence the overall well-being of people).
Overall, this pandemic has shown the overall greater threat of inequity in health care systems from a country that was assumed to have the necessary resources to combat. Looking at the data has further shown the health inequality for black people. The following quote describes asthma rates: “Non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic multiple races, Puerto Rican, obese, Medicaid, poor, ≥2 non-asthma chronic comorbidities (CC), and family average CC ≥ 2 were associated with higher odds of having asthma” (Sullivan et al. 2020, p.1). In addition, “Within the United States, 13.4% of Black non-Hispanic children less than 18 years of age had a diagnosis of asthma in 2015, compared to 7.3% of White non-Hispanic children and 8.0% of Hispanic children” (Woodley 2019, p.192). Furthermore, it is“reported that cardiovascular diseases account for one-third of the differences in life expectancy between black and other racial groups, and African Americans are slower to receive specialized care including coronary artery bypass graft surgery” (Guys-Well 2017, p. 247). The high rates of asthma and other comorbidities are notable in the past for this country but it is still an ever present trend not being solved by the health systems in place. Health disparities have become normalized in the United States.
Also, using critical race theory, systemic racism leads to those comorbidities for black people. Based on the above literature reviews about race and health, medical and public health literature on race and COVID-19, and any existing contemporary media and articles about relationships between any of these themes and COVID-19, there is a story intertwined with race, history, and co-morbidities.
In conclusion, COVID-19 has shown the disturbing truth about our health systems. Black people are predisposed to health conditions such as asthma based on the systemic racism against black people which is a factor in the increase in black deaths during this current pandemic. While the pandemic has created a new normal for some, the Brown and black people are facing the same old normal (Albaih 2020). In other words, the experience of people of color in the health system has always been lacking.
Moving forward, we need to increase the overall testing and gather data from the Center for Disease Control on the health disparities along racial lines and the amount of African-American that have died from the coronavirus. There can be real measures taken to prevent and solve our broken health system.
Works Cited
Albaih, Khalid. “Your 'New Normal' Is Our 'Old Normal'.” Sudan | Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera, April 27, 2020. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/normal-normal-200426164350286.html.
Guy-Walls, Patricia, and Jody G. Long. “African Americans and Heart Disease.” Health & Social Work 42, no. 4 (November 2017): 247–49. doi:10.1093/hsw/hlx033.
Sullivan, P. W., V. Ghushchyan, P. Navaratnam, H. S. Friedman, A. Kavati, B. Ortiz, and B. Lanier. 2020. “Exploring Factors Associated with Health Disparities in Asthma and Poorly Controlled Asthma among School-Aged Children in the U.S.” Journal of Asthma 57 (3): 271–85. doi:10.1080/02770903.2019.1571080.
Wallace-Wells, David. “The Un-habitable Earth: Life After Warming.” CELA. 2020.
Woodley, Lisa K. 2019. “Reducing Health Disparities In Pediatric Asthma.” Pediatric Nursing 45 (4): 191–98.http://search.ebscohost.com.go.libproxy.wakehealth.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=138187842&site=ehost-live.