African American Community Concerning COVID-19 Fatalities, Research Paper Example

Factors that Impact the African American Community concerning Covid-19 Fatalities

Historical factors are to blame for the soaring numbers of African American community deaths due to Covid-19. The implication of the statement outlined above is derived from many research studies that have been conducted and concluded since the strike of the global pandemic.  Historical factors associated with racism, color discrimination, unemployment, and lack of adequate education and healthcare are the leading factors that constitute the upsurge in the spread and casualties often reported from the African American community. The same case applies to other minority groups in the United States. However, this research focuses on African Americans’ challenges and the reasons why the pandemic is highly likely to ravage them more than other communities like the majority of whites. Historical disparities that are pivoted by extreme racism are the leading contributing factors that have resulted in the spread of Covid-19 and the subsequent increase in African Americans’ deaths.

Healthcare Factors

Lack of proper health coverage has been found to cause increased inaccessibility to medical facilities and treatment for many African American community members. Heeju (182) elaborates that African Americans are racially sidelined even by the state-sponsored health policies. The majority of the people from this community cannot afford to partially pay for the premiums which cover long term illnesses like those associated with the pandemic. As of October 2020, VOA News (n.p) reported that more than half of 50% of minority groups in America were contracting and dying of Covid-19 than the majority white race community. Statistically, the African American community constitutes more than 36% of the total number of minority communities devastated by the pandemic.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention delineated that one person out of 750 people nationally in the United States is likely to die from covid-19. The number is up to three times when surveyed among the African American community (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, n.p).  The report findings from the two sources demonstrate that because Medicaid and Medicare cover individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds and are treated in public facilities, the cover is outweighed by the number of sick minority groups. The medical covers that African Americans have subsequently limit them from accessing better private facilities. The results from such inadequacies have been witnessed with the sustained upsurge in the number of colored folks’ deaths.

Racism and regional discrimination have also increased the cases of fatalities among African American community. Seervai (n.p) illustrates that police brutality against the racial and social justice picketers influenced the spread of the virus.  Hence, racism is also a consideration in achieving emergency assistance whenever the minority black community calls for emergency assistance. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (n.p) also adds that unless there are essential measures that politically implementable, the social distance among African Americans in their regions of residence is more likely to be unrealized. Racial factors, as CDC indicated in the result when the state fails to provide affordable houses that could elevate the conditions of the African Americans.  African American community occupies densely populated inner-city areas that further spread the pandemic.  The results of such lowly inhabitations have been more aligned to the lack of integration of races through disparity in formal settlement policies.

Economic Factors

History examines that the African American community has often suffered blow after blow economic-wise since slavery. Periodically, African Americans’ economic backdrop can be attributed to disputed representations at work, education, and perception.  Racism is a modern-day hindrance to the economic emancipation of the community. Gupta (n.p) shows that racism is a cover-up or the evolved version of slavery that inhibits men and women of color from finding better livelihoods.  On the other hand, Rentsch et al. (n.p) highlight that most African American communities are employed in manufacturing industries because they lack advanced skills for more competent employment forms. In the industries, social distance and protective gears are inadequate, not available, or the industries close down, leaving the workers vulnerable to hunger, contracting the virus, and scathing generational poverty.

African Americans, due to lack of adequate qualifications, have resorted to working in low-paying jobs. The ethics imbalance between the whites and the blacks witnessed with the whites’ stereotypical position against blacks as being violent has led to many police arrests of African Americans. The law enforcement authorities have misused the utilitarianism theory based on the stereotyped personalities of blacks’ violent behaviors. The aspect has brought many rejections in employment among African Americans (Colen et al., 168). The rule of law that underscores the minimum wage regulations in employment is far subdued when African Americans apply for promising jobs.  Suffering from underlying health disorders like obesity, hypertension, and pressure, together with the increased household population, African Americans have frequently settled for jobs that do not entirely represent their economic and health needs (Block, Ray, et al., n.p). During the closedown of many industries due to the spread of Covid-19, most African Americans are left without social security concerning the promise of betterment even after the pandemic.

Additional Factors that Impact the African American Community and Possible Solutions

Education as a universal right that consequentially opens many doors to prosperity is not universal to the African American community. Under normal circumstances, education should be the link to which many African American children find leverage to obtain betterment. Still, schools in the outposts of this community lack adequate resources from qualified personnel to bring better information to learning resources. Obermeyer (449) depicts lack of proper education has also equally led to generational unpreparedness for calamities and pandemics.  Federal and state governments must begin to apply the educational laws equivocally to sustain the rising need for equality and preparedness to combat disease outbreaks and the pandemic (Crowe, 51). Historical issues about biased distribution of educational resources should be revisited and reformed, especially among all minority communities, so that education could be sustained as the universal right it is supposed to be.

Lack of financial literacy has also led to increased unawareness of the financial implications, discipline, and decision-making among African Americans. Because no adequate financial education is administered to the high school students, the level upon which many African Americans reach (Colen et al.,179), most community members suffer from financial misinformation related to poor planning. Laster (n.p) discusses that initiating financial literacy programs within the community could have reversed the spread and subsequent fatalities of the pandemic for many would have taken better measures.  Community outreach programs should be formed, state-sponsored through financial professionals like bankers, education economists, and politicians. The colored Americans can be elevated from the need to work even during the pandemic.

Conclusion

High death rates will continue to be witnessed long after Covid-19 pandemic has been revitalized and subdued. Until the political systems and policies are appropriately implemented, and racial/ethnic discrimination is addressed, low wage remittance, lack of affordable healthcare and coverage, educational and financial literacy will not cease blocking many African American communities’ potentials.  The covid-19 pandemic has been a global economic game-changer and an eye-opener to the listed factors above that havoc the wellness and right to life faced by the African American community. Race/ ethnicity is the ultimate factor that has prevented most African Americans from ascending to better healthcare and employment that could have minimized the rate of Covid-19 deaths in the United States of America.

Works Cited

Block, Ray, et al. “African American adherence to COVID-19 public health recommendations.” HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice 4.3 (2020): e166-e170. Source from https://www.healio.com/public-health/journals/hlrp/2020-7-4-3/%7B428665fa-cfa8-4 038-be4e-8e7967c25084%7D/African-American-adherence-to-covid-19-public-health recommendations

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups.” (2020). Source https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity. HTML?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.CDC.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-n cov%2Fneed-extra-precautions%2Fracial-ethnic-minorities.html

Colen, Cynthia G., et al. “Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination.” Social Science & Medicine 199 (2018): 167-180.

Crowe, Jonathan. Natural law and the nature of law. Cambridge University Press, (2019): 49-56.

Obermeyer, Ziad, et al. “Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations.” Science 366.6464 (2019): 447-453.

Pirtle, Whitney N. Laster. “Racial capitalism: a fundamental cause of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic inequities in the United States.” Health Education & Behavior (2020).

Rentsch, Christopher T., et al. “Patterns of COVID-19 testing and mortality by race and ethnicity among United States veterans: A nationwide cohort study.” PLoS medicine 17.9 (2020): e1003379.

Shannon, Sheervai. “Why Are More Black Americans Dying of COVID-19?” The Commonwealth Fund. (2020). Source https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/podcast/2020/jun/why-are-more-bla CK-Americans-dying-covid-19

Sohn, Heeju. “Racial and ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage: Dynamics of gaining and losing coverage over the life-course.” Population research and policy review 36.2 (2017): 181-201.

Sujata Gupta. “Why African-Americans may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19” ScienceNews (2020). Source from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm?s_cid=mm6915e3_w https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-why-african-americans-vulnerable-covid-19-health-race

VOA News. “Racial Minorities in US Dying From COVID at Higher Rates than Whites.” (2020). Source https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/racial-minorities-us-dying-covid-higher-rates-whites