Puzzling Over African American COVID Deaths

Townhall.com ^ | April 23, 2020 | Mona Charen

[Kaslin]

The numbers are preliminary, but it seems that African Americans are dying from COVID-19 at alarming rates. In Louisiana, for instance, blacks represent 70 percent of the dead but only 33 percent of the population. In Michigan, blacks comprise 33 percent of the infected, but 40 percent of the fatalities. This has occasioned an outpouring of analysis suggesting that racism is to blame. Racism and discrimination have unarguably left grave traces in the lives of African Americans, but the rush to identify racism as the cause of this particular disparity may be too pat.

CNN, like many others, cited lower levels of health insurance among blacks as one reason for the higher death rate. "Compared to white people, blacks have lower levels of health insurance coverage and are less likely to have insurance coverage through an employer." According to The Kaiser Family Foundation, this is true, but the differences are quite small. Among whites in 2018, 7.5 percent lacked health insurance. Among blacks, the figure was 11.5 percent. The Hispanic rate was significantly higher at 19 percent.

A number of reports have also pointed to higher rates of asthma among African Americans as possibly predisposing them to complications from COVID-19, which seems plausible. But again, the numbers are surprisingly modest. The Office of Minority Health at the Health and Human Services department found in 2015 that the percentage of African American adults with diagnosed asthma was 9.1 percent. The percentage among whites was 7.9 percent. On the other hand, the death rate was three times as high for blacks as whites for reasons unknown. The newest evidence from COVID-19 fatalities, however, has downgraded asthma as a risk factor. Cardiovascular issues appear to be much more significant.

Many reports on racial disparities in deaths from the new virus have unfortunately traded in stereotypes. African Americans are portrayed as largely poor and urban. That's not the case. In 2018, the black poverty rate was 20.8 percent, which was, unfortunately, more than double the white rate of 10.1 percent, but still leaves nearly 80 percent of African Americans in the middle and upper classes. Like whites, blacks are also more likely these days to live in suburbs (39 percent) than in cities (36 percent). Another 15 percent live in small metropolitan areas and 10 percent in rural regions.

There is little dispute that African Americans have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease than whites, Hispanics or Asians, and those underlying health conditions leave them more vulnerable to various other diseases. But that doesn't answer the question about COVID, or the flu for that matter. The 2009 H1N1 epidemic, for example, affected all ethnic groups similarly. In 2010, the CDC reported, "There is no epidemiological or clinical evidence that suggests that African Americans are more susceptible to either 2009 H1N1 or seasonal influenza."

Some have suggested that because African-Americans are more likely to hold service jobs and interact with the public, they are more at risk. This is somewhat true. Only 20 percent of African Americans in a recent survey said they could work from home, compared with 30 percent of whites. But that's not a huge gap and doesn't explain the large discrepancies in deaths from COVID-19.

Here's another stereotype to retire: the one about blacks as mail carriers and train conductors. The Labor Force Statistics table from the BLS, (which is more interesting than it sounds), shows that blacks are distributed all over the employment map. African Americans represent about 12 percent of the U.S. population, and comprise 10.7 percent of those in "textiles, apparel, leather manufacturing." They are 12 percent of the "household appliance manufacturing" workforce, and 8.4 percent of employees in furniture stores. They are quite overrepresented among human resource administrators (21.8 percent), electronic equipment repair and maintenance (17 percent) and vocational rehabilitation services (26.6 percent). Yes, they represent 29.9 percent of those employed by taxi and limousine companies, as well as 30.5 percent of home health care workers, but the distribution of work is quite broad.

Something is causing large numbers of African Americans to succumb to this new disease. I am not a medical professional and wouldn't hazard a guess as to what's going on physiologically. There are some new reports that the disease causes strange blood clots. If we're lucky, this new insight will point to better treatments.

The truth is that we're dealing with multiple unknowns, and though we can never discount the long-lasting effects of racism, it's dubious to attribute this pathogen's lethality to cultural factors. Americans of all ethnicities are starting to be more alike than different, and looking for social explanations for our current health crisis may impede rather than enhance understanding.

[9YearLurker]

Have the numbers been compared with poor white people? Are they being made a special population of focus?

[R_Kangel]

..... Black Americans are also the predominant victims of Sickle Cell Anemia .... Is there a connection???

[CodeJockey]

It’s always possible that it could be tied to genetics because of their sub Saharan mix, but even if scientifically documented, I doubt it could ever published in any medical journals. That would make the virus racist.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

It is no different than the black murder rate — lifestyle choices. Sedentary people watching TV and eating junk food leaves you predisposed to a plethora of diseases. Throw in alcohol and drug use and obesity, then Katie bar the door. A disregard for advice from "the man" makes you even more vulnerable.

[A_perfect_lady]

There is little dispute that African Americans have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease than whites, Hispanics or Asians, and those underlying health conditions leave them more vulnerable to various other diseases. But that doesn't answer the question about COVID, or the flu for that matter.

Uh... yes it does.

[Bommer]

Diet is one reason. Not giving a crap about the quarentine is another!

[woodbutcher1963]

chocolate city

[Responsibility2nd]

Wow. The article missed an obvious reason.

So did 67 replies.

People please! I’ve read more than a few articles that explained black people avoid wearing masks.

Why? Because of the criminal element involved in wearing a mask.

I’m not making this up. And while I do think this is little more than an excuse in wondering why blacks are being targeted with CV19; it is out there.

So add this to a list of possibles.

[prophetic]

One thing I’ve observed with the Left, they never let Facts get in the way of spinning their lying agenda.

[Crucial]

Obesity is a top risk factor, if not the top risk factor. What percentage of Afeican Americans are obese? I just looked it up and the CDC says 49.6%.

Half of all nonHispanic African Americans are obese. There is your answer.

[Ragnar54]

This is most likely due to people with darker skin having lower vitamin D levels:

Probability of Vitamin D Deficiency by Body Weight and Race/Ethnicity

"Conclusions:
The effects of skin color and body weight on vitamin D status are large, both statistically and clinically. At typical target concentrations of deficiency (below 20 or below 30 ng/mL), those with darker skin colors or heavier body weights have a higher probability of being vitamin D deficient. Knowledge of these effects may facilitate the diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency."

There is a sad familiarity to the distribution of this disease, if one reviews the history of rickets:

Rickets before the discovery of vitamin D

"Progress in studies of the causes and treatment of rickets suddenly moved much faster, in the period 1917–1922. At the beginning of that time, Huldschinski33 advocated ultraviolet light treatment for rickets. At the same time, Hess34 showed that cod liver oil could prevent and cure rickets in Afro-American children in New York. ... On the veranda (Figure 3) one group was kept well covered while the other group of children, wearing remarkably little clothing, was exposed to sunlight. This second group got better. Thus it was shown that cod liver oil and exposure to sunlight both healed rickets. However, it was not clear at that time whether the effectiveness of cod liver oil was due to vitamin D or to vitamin A,... "

Unfortunately, once a minimal dose of Vitamin D was found to be enough to cure rickets, our government keepers pronounced any more to be probably "toxic" or at best unnecessary. It is time to consider whether we need "ancestral" levels of vitamin D.

There is an article on NIH by a Canadian physician (Dr. Gerry Schwalfenberg) who works in nursing homes. He has developed a protocol for reducing flu like illness among his patients. This should be tried against the corona virus in US nursing homes:

Vitamin D for influenza

"A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-time 50 000 IU dose of vitamin D3 or 10 000 IU 3 times daily for 2 to 3 days. The results are dramatic, with complete resolution of symptoms in 48 to 72 hours. One-time doses of vitamin D at this level have been used safely and have never been shown to be toxic. We urgently need a study of this intervention. The cost of vitamin D is about a penny for 1000 IU, so this treatment costs less than a dollar."

There is a presentation by Dr. Robert P Heaney on the healthful effects of adequate vitamin D levels:

Vitamin D Sunshine Optimal Health: Putting it all Together

[ro_dreaming]

Something is causing large numbers of African Americans to succumb to this new disease. I am not a medical professional and wouldn’t hazard a guess as to what’s going on physiologically. There are some new reports that the disease causes strange blood clots. If we’re lucky, this new insight will point to better treatments.

Interesting - in that I (Caucasian male, 50) - have sickle cell trait, so I’m essentially immune to malaria, so maybe I am also extra susceptible to COVID-19.

And, I wonder why the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine is effective against COVID-19?

[Sergio]

Thanks for sharing the post.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Well, this makes things easy. COVID is racist, let’s call it out, and then it will stop and we’ll all be saved.

[scrabblehack]

The web seems to be slow right now but last I checked, metro New Orleans and especially Orleans Parish led the state by a long shot. It looked like an urban issue to me, contrary to what the author of the article claimed.

[elbook]

.

NEEDED MAPS THAT SHOW DEMOGRAPHICS AND per capita DEATH rates

Hypothesis : Will show - squalorous socialist bureaucrat-controlled populations having HIGH death rates, while the death rates of similar racial demographics elsewhere are average.

Paying people not to work leads to lazy unhealthy lifestyles.

Concentrations of drug-use/alcoholism/obesity being shown could also show a linkage of cause & effect.

.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

Maybe they should start weighing the dead and determine if obesity is a factor.

[rdb3]

It is a sad life to look at everything through a racial lens

Correct. And this is true in all directions.

Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.

[SaveFerris]

I was sitting a couple seats over from a black woman several weeks ago (story I’ve already told but again) she was going off about how she and her family were the first African-Americans to do this, the first African-Americans to do that, blah blah blah blah blah.

The poor lady in between us was absorbing all of this nonsense with how great it was. Had to be a liberal. This was probably 2 months ago.

THEN (#1) starts going off about how they (African Americans) don’t get the coronavirus - So I guess it’s just going to kill whitey and such.

Had to look to see if it was Louis Farrakhan there.

Had to be one of his disciples.

[SaveFerris]

[It is a sad life to look at everything through a racial lens]

That is actually quite correct.