The development comes as the number of coronavirus cases in the United States has surpassed 2 million, according to John Hopkins University. Besides having the highest number of cases, the US has the highest death toll, more than 115,000, with African Americans dying at a significantly higher rate than people from other groups in the country.
An Ohio lawmaker has been accused of systemic racism after he asked whether serious coronavirus cases among African Americans could be the result of poor hygiene. During a hearing of the state’s Senate Health committee on whether to declare racism a public health crisis, Senator Steve Huffman, who is also a practicing physician said the following:
The Director of Ohio Commission on Minority Health said that leading health experts state that chronic health conditions and not hygiene make people vulnerable to COVID-19, while Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President Stephanie Howse said the lawmaker’s choice of words and the question itself represent systemic racism.
Senator Huffman said he was misunderstood and noted that he was trying to focus on why the disease affects “people of colour” at a higher rate since doctors “don’t know all the reasons”.
A study conducted by the American Public Media Research Lab in May found that African Americans die from coronavirus at a significantly higher rate than all other ethnicities – 50.3 per 100,000 people. The death rate for white, Asian, and Latinos stood at 20.7, 22.7, and 22.9 respectively.
A separate analysis conducted in the United Kingdom by the Office for National Statistics found that black men and women in England and Wales are nearly twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than whites. Men and women from Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi communities too had a significant risk of dying from the disease, the study found.
The development comes as the United States has surpassed 2 million, according to John Hopkins University. Besides having the most cases, the US has the highest death toll – more than 115,000, but the mortality rate is still lower than in major European countries. For comparison the mortality rate in Britain, which has the second-highest death toll (more than 41,000) after the US is 14.1, while in US its 5.7.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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