Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African diaspora
Research in the UK has also demonstrated how other structural issues have intersected with COVID-19 to create a damaging cycle affecting black and minority ethnic (BAME) populations.
[2] Some categories of key workers are disproportionally drawn from BAME communities and were therefore required to continue working outside their homes during the pandemic,[3] where they were more likely to be stopped by police on their way to provide essential services.
[8] The combination of structural factors as they play out during this time of crisis is disproportionately affecting African-American communities in the United States in many aspects of their life.
[10] Medical experts attribute the disproportionate rates of these diseases in black people to higher levels of stress and racial discrimination.
[15] Similarly, American Public Media reported on the COVID-19 mortality rate by race/ethnicity through July 21, 2020, including Washington, DC, and 45 states.
The overrepresentation of African-American people among confirmed COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths underscores the fact that the coronavirus pandemic is amplifying and exacerbating existing social inequalities tied to race, class, and access to the health care system according to many statistical studies.
[18] Given that people experiencing homelessness often live in close quarters, have compromised immune systems, and are aging, they are more vulnerable to communicable diseases—including the COVID-19.
[22] Sociologist Robert Sampson writes on this disproportionate impact by stating that the coronavirus is exposing class and race-based vulnerabilities.
The pandemic is concentrating in urban areas with high population density, which are, for the most part, neighborhoods where marginalized and minority individuals live.
Strategies most recommended controlling the spread of COVID-19—social distancing and frequent handwashing—are difficult to practice for those who are incarcerated or who live in highly dense communities with precarious or insecure housing, poor sanitation, and limited access to clean water.
Black households reported that their personal savings were depleted by the pandemic, that they had fallen behind on housing payments, or have had problems paying debts and/or utility bills.
Black people and Latinos were hit especially hard when stay at home orders and social distancing mandates were enforced because they are over-represented in the leisure and hospitality industries.
[11] Although many Caribbean countries have established physical isolation measures to reduce infection and prevent health systems from collapsing, the region's structural problems have made it more complex to mount an immediate response to the crisis.
A report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) demonstrated that COVID-19 is exposing social inequalities of all kinds and the overrepresentation of Afrodescendants among the group living in poverty who are employed in informal and caregiving jobs.
[24] As Afrodescendants have worse indicators of well-being than their non-Afrodescendant peers, they are seen as one of the groups most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Caribbean countries, in terms of both infection and mortality.
Various agencies and institutions, including the Pan American Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Development Bank, have already pointed out that the Afrodescendant population is more vulnerable to COVID-19 owing to the structural inequality and racial discrimination to which it is subjected.
[27] The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission asking them to investigate whether the effects of coronavirus on BAME groups could have been prevented or mitigated.
[28] A group of 70 BAME figures sent a letter to Boris Johnson calling for an independent public enquiry into the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
[32] Research carried out by The Guardian newspaper concluded that ethnic minorities in England when compared to white people were dying in disproportionately high numbers.
[37][38][39] An Oxford University led study into the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy concluded that 55% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with coronavirus from 1 March to 14 April were from a BAME background.
