The novel coronavirus is infecting and killing Black, Latinx, and Native American people in the U.S. at rates shockingly higher than whites, according to state public health data.
Mother Jones has a deep data dive into the racial disparities of COVID-19, which examines the many factors that have led to the outbreak hitting Americans of color hardest.
Data for Florida is from April 14. Data from Connecticut from last week, the data is unavailable on the state's website now.
Chart: Mother Jones Source: Mother Jones from state websites
In early April, Mother Jones began requesting racial and ethnic breakdowns of COVID-19 infections and deaths from health departments in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of those, 21 states released no racial or ethnic breakdowns of those infected. Twenty-six states failed to release breakdowns of fatalities by race, and among the states that did, the information was inconsistently formatted. Some broke out data only by race, others only by ethnicity, and some by both. Some offered data for Latinx and Asian communities; others classified them as “Other.” Most states had little if any information about how Latinx, Asian, and Native American populations have been affected.
But a clear picture did emerge. Preliminary data analysis by Mother Jones finds that Black people overall have disproportionately contracted and died from the coronavirus. In 20 of the 28 states plus DC for which a usable racial breakdown of infection data was provided, Black people make up a larger share of coronavirus infections than they do of the general population.
In 18 of the 23 states plus DC for which a usable racial breakdown of fatality data was provided, Black people likewise make up a disproportionately large share of coronavirus fatalities. In Michigan, Black people are 14 percent of the state’s population but 33 percent of its coronavirus cases and 40 percent of its deaths. In Wisconsin, Black people are six percent of the state’s population but 25 percent of its coronavirus cases and 39 percent of its deaths.
Read the rest:
COVID-19 Has Infected and Killed Black People At Alarming Rates. This Data Proves It.
[ Edwin Rios, Sinduja Rangarajan]
