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There is growing concern that racial and ethnic minority communities around the United States are experiencing a disproportionate burden of infection rate and mortality from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). While most research, media newspapers, websites, and television networks are providing statistical numbers of daily infection and death rate across US by state, these numbers fail to study the actual impact of COVID-19 to each race. Our approach has taken the top five races by population count in the US and has calculated the impact index by race for each state for COVID-19 infections and death rate. We also examine the rise in the utilization of hospitals as a result of the rise in cases of COVID-19 in the United states. We conclude that the African American race and Hispanic race is disproportionately impacted more than the white population for infection rate.
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On race, human variation, and who gets and dies of sepsis
Abstract COVID‐19 has highlighted a brutal reality known for decades, that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color bear a disproportionate burden of US annual sepsis cases. While plentiful research funds have been spent investigating genetic reasons for racial disparities in sepsis, an abundance of research shows that sepsis incidence and mortality maps to indicators of colonial practices including residential segregation, economic and marginalization sepsis, and denial of care. Here we argue that sepsis risk is an immunological embodiment of racism in colonial states, that the factors contributing to sepsis disparities are insidious and systemic. We show that regardless of causative pathogen, or host ancestry, racialized people get and die of sepsis most frequently in a pattern repeatedly reiterated worldwide. Lastly, we argue that while alleviation of sepsis disparities requires radical, multiscale intervention, biological anthropologists have a responsibility in this crisis. While some of us can harness our expertise to take on the ground action in sepsis prevention, all of us can leverage our positions as the first point of contact for in depth human biology instruction on most college campuses. As a leading cause of death worldwide, and a syndrome that exhibits the interplay between human physiology, race and environment, sepsis is at the nexus of major themes in biological anthropology and is a natural fit for the field's curriculum. In adopting a discussion of race and sepsis in our courses, we not only develop new research areas but increase public awareness of both sepsis and the factors contributing to uneven sepsis burden.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1750675
- PAR ID:
- 10374692
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Journal of Biological Anthropology
- Volume:
- 178
- Issue:
- S74
- ISSN:
- 2692-7691
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 230-255
- Size(s):
- p. 230-255
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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