It is quite obvious from the maps that areas where
more people of color live are hit much harder by
Covid-19 than other areas.
A British study published in Nature which
used health care data of 17 million people
pseudonymously linked to some 11,000 Covid-19 deaths
found that people of color in Britain are much more
likely to die of Covid-19:
Compared with people with white ethnicity, Black and
South Asian people were at higher risk even after
adjustment for other factors (HR 1.48, 1.30–1.69 and
1.44, 1.32–1.58, respectively).
A 'Hazard Ratio' (HR) of 1.48 means that these people
were 48% more likely to die of the disease than the
average person.
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A similar observation
has been made in U.S. meat processing plants:
More than 16,200 U.S. meat plant workers had tested
positive for Covid-19 by the end of May and 86 had
died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
said in a report Tuesday. [..] Of the cases that
disclosed race and ethnicity, 87% involved minority
workers -- with employees identified as Hispanic
accounting for 56% of infections despite making up
less than a third of the overall workforce.
There is no biological difference between various
ethnicities with regards to Covid-19. There is no
scientific theory that attributes this to any other
causes than social issues - i.e. low income, bad housing
and lack of access to care.
This is an issue of class, not of identity. Black and
Hispanic people happen to in the lowest one.
Unfortunately neither the British nor the
CDC study have parameters that cover income or other
social indicators. I am sure that they would otherwise
show that deprived white people have the same chance to
die of Covid-19 as deprived non-white people living in
similar circumstances.
Yes, there is
a racial wage gap in the United States. But the real
gap is between productivity growth and wage growth.
Throughout the last decades neither black nor white
workers have seen substantial wage raises. This is a
class issue.
This gap between increased productivity and wage gain
at the bottom did not exist until the late 1970s when
neo-liberal ideologues under Reagan and Thatcher
introduced economic policies that
favored the top 1%:
From 1979 to 2018, net productivity rose 69.6
percent, while the hourly pay of typical workers
essentially stagnated—increasing only 11.6 percent
over 39 years (after adjusting for inflation). This
means that although Americans are working more
productively than ever, the fruits of their labors
have primarily accrued to those at the top and to
corporate profits, especially in recent years.
Identity policies around ethnicity, gender or sexual
preference are instrumental in hiding the real disease
of our societies. Class differences have become extreme.
The rich have become much richer while those at the
bottom have gained nothing.
The pandemic exposes the deadly consequences of these
policies.
Sidenote:
It is likely that Trump started his campaign to
urgently end the lockdown after he noticed that the
outbreak in New York mostly hit the black underclass.
Those weren't his people. But that thinking is wrong. An
epidemic, once let off to run its cause, will not
differentiate. The poor will be hit first. But the virus
will not stop with them. One wonders how long it will
take him to get that.
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