Separate and Unequal: Racial Disparities in Coronavirus Treatment

While COVID-19 continues wreaking havoc on cities around the world, its disproportionate toll on African Americans has further burdened a community already at higher risk for various health and social ailments. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), African Americans account for 30 percent of U.S. coronavirus cases despite comprising only 13 percent of the population. This statistic does not include the 75 percent of confirmed cases for which no racial demographic data exist, nor does it offer any information on the number of fatalities among Blacks diagnosed with the virus.

 News stories on the pandemic rightfully call attention to the shortage of essential medical supplies and the intense stress on healthcare workers and first responders, yet culturally intelligent approaches to lessening the impact of the virus on African Americans also deserve focus. Without acknowledging and attempting to dismantle the unique barriers between African Americans and medical treatment, the coronavirus and other co-morbidities will only persist in straining both an overtaxed healthcare system and the people who need it most. Those barriers include:

 Distrust and Misinformation Regarding Treatment

Many African Americans look upon the country’s healthcare infrastructure with suspicion due to a history of systemic racism, most notably the Tuskegee Study. Conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), the study examined the effects of untreated syphilis in hundreds of Black male patients without advising them of their infections or offering them treatment, despite proof of penicillin as an effective treatment emerging in the 1940s. As a result, Black Americans, particularly those living in poor rural communities, developed a deep mistrust of public health services that still influences their decisions on whether to seek medical treatment today, a mistrust that intensified when top medical experts recently suggested testing coronavirus vaccines on people in Africa.

 Adding to these misgivings, false reports about COVID-19 spread as quickly as the virus itself, among them the idea that people of African descent cannot contract the illness. Shared widely on social media, this myth likely kept many carriers from seeking necessary treatment. Even when Black celebrities such as Idris Elba and Kevin Durant revealed their coronavirus diagnoses, some people, most infamously the wildly popular rapper Cardi B, openly questioned the veracity of their claims.

 Inability to Afford Care

African Americans are more likely to be underinsured or uninsured than any other group in the country, significantly lessening their ability to afford coronavirus testing and treatment. Additionally, shelter-in-place orders and shuttered business have contributed to staggering unemployment rates, while promises of stimulus packages and small business loans do little for Black employees and entrepreneurs who don’t qualify for assistance.

 Cultural Traditions

With U.S. coronavirus deaths currently numbering 40,000 and rising, families now confront mourning their loved ones in small or even virtual gatherings that exclude relatives and religious rites. Such changes greatly differ from the repasts that often follow funerals in African American churches and communities, large celebrations built on food and fellowship. After one such event in Albany, Georgia, coronavirus quickly spread through the community, hospitalizing and killing several people in a small town that suddenly became a nationally recognized hotbed for COVID-19. In response to the pandemic, Black churches and funeral homes have eliminated wakes, restricted the number of mourners who can attend services, or avoided traditional services altogether, opting instead to stream services online or preside over graveside memorials as friends and family watch from their cars. For some families, however, these efforts offer little comfort, prompting indefinite postponements of funerals and additional grief over the loss of human connection.

 Confronting the alarming disparities surrounding African Americans and COVID-19 requires a holistic strategy that builds trust between Black patients and healthcare workers, provides free screening and treatment to poor and at-risk populations, and helps families honor deceased loved ones without compromising their health. In the long run, adopting a one-size-fits-all mindset and ignoring the inequities exacerbated in this pandemic will further hinder endeavors to build a fair, effective, and culturally intelligent healthcare system.

 To learn more about culturally intelligent approaches to healthcare, contact us at www.theeastledgegroup.com.