NEW from me: Black Americans are disproportionately likely to say a family member or close friend has died of COVID-19, according to a new series of surveys conducted since April that lays bare how black Americans have borne the brunt of the pandemic.
apnews.com/52ed0842bd1710…
The findings are stark. @hrfingerhut’s analysis: Eleven percent of African Americans say they were close with someone who has died of COVID-19, compared with 5% of Americans overall & 4% of white Americans. The numbers are even more grim in cities & states hit hard by the virus.
Black Americans have been living in a perpetual state of crisis, experts say. The COVID-19 pandemic & civil unrest are the result of the longstanding effects of structural racism & generational trauma exacted upon Black Americans in the centuries following slavery.
Many blame the comorbidities Black Americans experience without looking deeper into the causation. Health inequities are rooted in racism. This from Dr. @uche_blackstock: “Our healthcare system is founded on racism & our communities have been essentially made sick by racism.”
America must also begin to grapple with the psychological trauma of the pandemic, coupled with the economic fallout, the civil unrest in the wake of several high profile killings of African Americans & witnessing Black grief on a mass scale, said U-M professor @EnriqueNeblett.
Wanted to also share our updated @AP COVID-19 analysis via @MeghanHoyer: More than a quarter of all COVID-related deaths nationwide have been black victims — nearly double the share of the black population in the areas sampled.
NOTE: Our (updated) analysis was completed using data pulled independently by AP reporters across the country from state and local departments.
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