• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • Column
  • Daily COVID-19 briefing from UCC - facts, not fear
  • New data on COVID-19’s disproportionate impact by race

New data on COVID-19’s disproportionate impact by race

by Barbara T. Baylor | published on Jul 8, 2020

United Church of Christ – Wider Church Ministries
Humanitarian Development Team
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Daily Briefing
Barbara T. Baylor, MPH – Temporary Health Liaison

New Data on COVID-19’s Disproportionate Impact by Race

chart_july_7_2020.jpgEspecially as a resident of Atlanta, Ga., I was saddened to hear that our Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms and members of her family have tested positive for COVID-19. 

After weeks of speaking passionately about the need for social distancing, wearing masks and getting tested, Mayor Lance-Bottoms revealed to the Associated Press that “COVID-19 has literally hit home.” Now the mayor unfortunately is another number in the ever-growing high infection rates among people of color.

COVID-19 has claimed more than 130,000 lives in the United States as of July 7, according to officially reported statistics. We know the race/ethnicity for 93 percent of these deaths.

A new, more comprehensive report on the virus’s unequal impact on racial and ethnic groups has been released by the Centers for Disease Control. The New York Times analyzed the racial disparities across 974 counties representing more than half the U.S. population.

The new data from CDC reveal continued deep disparities by race throughout hundreds of counties in urban, suburban and rural areas and across all age groups. Blacks and Hispanics are three times as likely to be infected with COVID-19 and two times more likely than whites to die from it.

The new data also show several pockets of disparities involving Native American people. For example, in much of Arizona and in several other counties, they were far more likely to become infected than white people. For people who are Asian, the disparities were generally not as large, though they were 1.3 times as likely as their white neighbors to become infected.

Latinx people between the ages of 40 and 59 have been infected at five times the rate of white people in the same age group. The differences are even more stark when it comes to deaths. Of Latinx people who died, more than a quarter were younger than 60. Among white people who died, only 6 percent were that young.

While it is very important to have up-to-date data on cases and deaths, an important takeaway from the new federal data is that important clues are missing to how the person might have become infected in the first place. 

Experts point to some circumstances – a number of which make social distancing very difficult if not impossible – that have made racial and ethnic persons more likely than white people to be exposed to the virus, including:

  1. Overrepresentation in front-line jobs that involve closely interfacing with the public (e.g. grocery) or co-workers (e.g. meat packing). Census data from 2018 show that, across the country, 43 percent of Black and Latinx workers are employed in service or production jobs that for the most part cannot be done remotely. Only about one in four white workers held such jobs. 
  2. Disproportionate reliance on public transportation.
  3. Living in cramped apartments or multigenerational homes. 
  4. Underlying health conditions that often are caused by factors that people cannot control, such as lack of access to healthy food options.

The Centers for Disease Control indicate that health differences among racial and ethnic groups result from inequities in living, working, healthcare and social conditions fostered by systemic racism and discrimination that have persisted across generations. 

Health and social service agencies can help reduce the impact of COVID-19 by addressing needs among racial and ethnic populations both in times of emergency and in day-to-day life, including social factors that impact health and well-being.

COVID-19 Daily Briefing Archives

See Also: Racial and Ethnic Disparities – Information for Action Archive

blue_green_donate_button_03.jpg

Categories: Column Daily COVID-19 briefing from UCC - facts, not fear

Get the UCC in your inbox!

Sign up for the weekly UCC News Digest

Privacy Policy
 
 

Related News

Into the Mystic

Kindland

Listen to the...

Read More
Witness for Justice
Witness for Justice

Climate Hope

Earlier this week, a couple of related items in my social media feed serendipitously arrived...

Read More
Justice & Peace Action Network Monthly Newsletter

JPANet February 2023 Newsletter

Each month we ask UCC advocates to help us unpack the complex justice issues that we’re...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative