What Can Be Done About the Stark Differences Between Black, White Communities on COVID-19

• Researchers say there are major differences between Black and white communities regarding COVID-19 hospitalizations and death rates.
• They say socioeconomic factors play a major role, including hospital care, the lack of transportation, and online services in communities of color.
• They say possible solutions include helping underfunded medical facilities and reducing the number of uninsured people.

A few months into the pandemic, scientists say they’ve discovered a disturbing pattern.

The data showed that those who survived COVID-19 and those who didn’t breaks down sharply along racial lines, with Black people being hit particularly hard.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black people develop COVID-19 at about the same rate as whites. But they are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized and twice as likely to die from the disease.

Why is this happening?

Some scientists have said Black people have higher rates of chronic diseases that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.

However, a new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests that may not be the whole story. Among other things, what hospital you land in could be a major factor.

“The effects of what hospital you go to are by far the greatest and, frankly, could entirely explain the Black-white differences we see in survival,” said Dr. David A. Asch, a lead author of the study and a professor of medicine and healthcare management as well as the director of the Center for Health Care Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania.