Demographics: How Does COVID-19 Affect Different Races and Economic Groups?

A sure fact is that COVID-19 has impacted the lives of everyone this year. It is acknowledged that even if people haven’t contracted the disease, the relative consequences of the global pandemic are significant. However, looking at demographics, it is clear that certain groups have an increased risk of being affected by and/or contracting the disease. Included in the Center of Disease Control’s article “Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups” are some of these factors: discrimination, healthcare access and utilization, occupation, educational, income, and weath gaps, and housing. In “Why researchers are worried about chronic stress and Covid-19”, journalist Lois Parshley points out, “Cortisol is an important part of the stress response, and new research suggests cortisol levels appear to impact the severity of Covid-19. There’s still a lot we don’t understand about the relationship between the two, but clinical trials of a Covid-19 treatment using dexamethasone — a drug that reduces the body’s natural cortisol production, as well as inflammation — has been found to help critically ill patients.” If dexamethasone reduces cortisol production and helps ill patients, then the opposite, increased cortisol production, must do great harm to ill patients. Discrimination plays a major role in stress levels for minority racial groups, and as a result, discriminated groups have a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and experiencing it in a more severe fashion. 

Not only does stress impact these groups for risk level, but their employment status affects them similarly. For instance, in surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center they found that, “Job and wage losses due to COVID-19 have hit Hispanic adults the hardest. Some 61% of Hispanic Americans and 44% of black Americans said in April that they or someone in their household had experienced a job or wage loss due to the coronavirus outbreak, compared with 38% of white adults.” The disparity of percentages of adults experiencing job wage/loss speaks volumes in showing how minority racial groups are impacted differently. 

When it is so obvious that racial minorities are impacted most by the disease, but are not the majority of the American population, what can others do to help? The CDC states, “To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we must work together to ensure that people have resources to maintain and manage their physical and mental health, including easy access to information, affordable testing, and medical and mental health care. We need programs and practices that fit the communities where racial and minority groups live, learn, work, play, and worship.” Something as simple as wearing a face mask or covering can help keep high-risk groups safe and protected! Along with that, being aware of the different ways COVID can negatively impact minorities can help us better understand how to help the situation.