As the coronavirus claims thousands of lives in the US each day, statistics have shown that ethnic minorities, especially African Americans, are struggling with disproportionately high COVID-19 death toll, once again pointing to the long-standing inequality issues in the country.
Wafaa El-Sadr, University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and Director of ICAP at Columbia University, was invited by Columbia Global Centers | Beijing to elaborate in an interview with Global Times on the possible causes of the exceptionally high infection and death rates among black people in the US. Main points of the interview are as follows.
- Data from the US show there are differences in the infection rate among different racial and ethnic groups. In New York City there is a significantly higher infection noted among Latinos and African Americans.
- It might be due to the fact that such individuals are more likely to be exposed to cases of COVID-19 through use of mass transit or due to living in more crowded conditions with higher risk of transmission among household members.
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