Why Black Women Are More Likely to Die from COVID-19 Than White Men

• Researchers say Black women are three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white men.
• Experts say part of the reason is Black women tend to have more underlying conditions than white men.
• They also note that Black women generally have less access to social determinants such as quality healthcare.
• There is research to suggest that racism plays a role in both of these factors.

Researchers at GenderSci Lab at Harvard University in Massachusetts started by looking at two things scientists had already determined about COVID-19 death rates:

Men are dying of the disease at higher rates than women.

Black people are dying at higher rates than white people.

So, the Harvard researchers decided to look at an intersection of sex and race.

“We were interested in seeing how the sex disparity might vary by race and we weren’t really sure what we would find,” said Heather Shattuck-Heidorn, PhD, the study’s senior author and an assistant professor of women and gender studies at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.