2024 - in the USA black people are the most affected

During this health crisis, we see that the United States has become the heart of the pandemic. An alarming situation which highlights the country's social inequalities. Recent figures show that the black population is mainly affected.

The health crisis seems more and more alarming in the United States. There have been more than 12,000 deaths across the country since the appearance of Covid-19. Alarming figures which raise a real social problem within the country. The coronavirus mainly attacks the most vulnerable populations from a health but also a financial point of view. The pandemic seems to create a gap between social classes. In the United States, vulnerable populations are linked to ethnicity and poverty. Consequently, certain observations reveal that the black community seems to be the most exposed and therefore the most affected in certain states of the country.

"I am very afraid of the disproportionate impact that this virus will have on African-Americans"

The investigative site ProPublica, for example, found that black people accounted for 81% of the deaths in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. However, this population constitutes only 26% of the region. In Chicago, the mayor of the city seems alarmed by the statistics: blacks represent less than a third of the inhabitants but represent more than 70% of the dead: "These disparities take your breath away" she explains. In Washington, city mayor Muriel Bowser also worried about the numbers within her city: "I am very afraid of the disproportionate impact that this virus will have on African-Americans" In fact, 13 of the 22 dead so far in Washington have been black.

A lack of resources in poor neighborhoods?

Is the lack of hospitals and care capacities the cause of these social and ethnic inequalities? According to some health professionals, the poorest neighborhoods in the United States are mostly black and access to health care therefore remains fragile for this community. In addition, certain medical coverages are not insured on lower paid employees.

This Tuesday, April 8, the chief doctor of the United States, Jérome Adams did not mince his words on CBS: "We know that black people are more likely to have diabetes, heart and lung disease. (…) I said before, I have high blood pressure myself. I have a disease and I already spent a week in intensive care because of a heart problem. I have asthma and I am pre-diabetic. I illustrate what it is to grow up poor and black in America. " also recalling that lung and heart problems increase the risk of Covid-19 contamination.

Furthermore, if the black community is more exposed to the coronavirus, it is also probably due to the profession that each one exercises. The majority of African-Americans practice professions that force them to leave their homes and, therefore, not to be in confinement, unlike the rest of the country's population. Georges Benjamin, president of the American Public Health Association told theAFP : "They are more often bus drivers, they take more public transport, they work more in retirement homes, shops and supermarkets."

The virus thus seems to shed more light on the social inequalities that already divide the American population when some have the luxury of teleworking and others are forced to be in human contact to provide for their own needs, not to mention the blankets of less or even nonexistent health insurance for some.