Ethical Dilemma into Racism and Unequal Impact of COVID 19 on African Americans
Introduction
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has had an adverse economic and societal effect that can only be compared to the Spanish flu epidemic that took place in 1918. Many people globally have directly experienced the dire complications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have previously highlighted that the risk factors associated with worse outcomes of COVID-19 include obesity, older age, diabetes, male sex, myocardial injury and hypertension (Yaya, Sanni, et al. 34). Data sourced from worst-hit countries by the pandemic such as Spain, Italy and China indicate that population deaths are consistent with the risk factors. However, the risk factors are not consistent with fatalities in the U.S., whereby blacks or African Americans are contracting the coronavirus at higher rates and also succumbing to the pandemic. According to Evelyn, approximately 70% of COVID-19 deaths in Chicago involve African Americans who make only 30% of the city’s population (1). In Louisiana, 70.5% of COVID-19 deaths involve African Americans, who account for 32% of the state’s population (Kendi 1). The trend is similar in other states such as New York, Michigan and Texas. The death rate of African Americans in 6-fold higher compared to that of the white population(Perry et al. 1) The death rate pattern indicates that underrepresented minorities (African Americans) have more frequent COVID-19 infections and they are dying disproportionately.
The Key Ethical Problem
Based on disproportionate infection and death rates in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my ethical dilemma is whether racism and policy discrimination is the cause of disparities in health outcomes. The known risk factors of COVID-19 complications such as diabetes, the confluence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and obesity are prevalent in both the white and black populations. As such, this presents an ethical dilemma on why African Americans would succumb more pandemic compared to the white population. The 6-fold increase in death rates of blacks in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic should be deemed unconscionable as well as a moment of ethical reckoning.
Due to the disproportionate death rates among African Americans, I would like to examine how racial disparities in various aspects such as housing, health and economic welfare have contributed to the high death toll amongst blacks in the U.S. American has a disparity ecosystem and long history of systemic inequities that mostly target African Americans. I feel that racial inequalities in healthcare, housing and employment could have a direct influence on the disproportionate death rates.
Informative Voices needed as part of the Dialogue
The informative voices that can be included in the dialogue include political leaders, social workers, the press and health research organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These individuals and institutions have concrete data about the infection and death rates attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The informative voices for the dialogue will also include researchers who have been keen to determine why the COVID-19 diseases cause such disparate outcomes. Public health practitioners will also play a critical role in the dialogue because they have been directly involved in offering treatment to patients with COVID-19 complications. The health practitioners will provide insight into the manifestation of the pandemic to different races and social classes.
Virtues
Aristotle’s Virtues
Truthfulness
Truthfulness refers to a quality of someone being honest and not sharing information that contains any lies. In this case, the U.S. government has numerous told lies about the extent of testing in communities dominated by Blacks. Also, it has lied by underestimating the number of deaths of African Americans and the real causes of these deaths (Gupta 1). If truthfulness prevails, then racial disparities in access to health which are attributed to causing the deaths of many African Americans can be addressed.
Patience
Patience is a virtue that requires someone to tolerate or accept potential delays, insolvencies and emerging problems that come about. According to Kendi, African Americans have demonstrated to lack the virtue of patience during the COVID-19 pandemic (1). The majority have defied the government lockdown measures and recommended safe practices such as social distancing, something that has resulted in infections and deaths of many African Americans.
Kingdom Ethics Virtues
Justice
Justice refers to the principle that stipulates that people should be granted what they deserve. According to Gravlee, Africans Americans have for a long time been considered as secondary citizens, something that has resulted in the allocation of insignificant resources in the communities they reside (1). Consequently, they are prone to health problems whenever diseases such as COVID-19 emerge. The government should let justice prevail by ensuring that African Americans receive equal and quality healthcare services as their white counterparts.
Self-Control
Self-control refers to a person’s ability to manage his or her emotions and impulses. The majority of African Americans lack this virtue because they openly engage in social activities such as playing basketball despite the potential dangers that may arise.
Specific Actions the Local community should take.
The ethical dilemma involves the systematic and racial disparities in the U.S. and their impact on unequal effects of COVID-19 on African Americans. Black Americans have occasionally been victims of racial inequities in healthcare, such as caps on public health insurance plans like Medicare and Medicaid. Also, many African Americans do not have health insurance in comparison to their white counterparts. This is mainly attributed to economic injustice whereby the majority lack jobs that can cater for their health insurance (Clarke, Harold, and Paul Whiteley 45). Most blacks also live in medically underserved areas where there are frequent facility closures. Consequently, their ability to access primary care is limited because it is either expensive or scarce.
Considering the racial inequities in healthcare that African Americans face, the local community that includes state and local governments should ensure that each American despite their race or economic welfare receives the best possible healthcare during this period when death rates attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are rising. Also, health insurance companies should lower premiums for marginalized communities to ensure they are able to receive healthcare services in different medical centres. State and federal governments should remove caps on public health insurance plans to ensure that any African American with a health plan is able to access healthcare services. Local governments should deal with the unconscious racial bias of hiring health professionals who are inexperienced about the culture of African Americans. The unconscious racial bias could be leading the unequal health outcomes among African Americans. Implementing these actions will not only reduce racial inequities in healthcare but also potentially reduce the high death rates of African Americans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
African Americans should take personal responsibility in terms of avoiding infection of COVID-19. According to Kim, Sage, and Wendy, the majority of African Americans fail to adhere to the recommended safe practices of avoiding infection of COVID 19 such as the use of masks in public spaces, hand hygiene, physical isolation and social distancing (18). These measures have proved critical in reducing new infections, saving lives and flattening the infection curve. However, the message of social distancing seems to be ignored by African Americans because the majority still play basketball, host sleepovers, and hold parties. As such, most Americans feel that high COVID-19 infection and mortality rates among black people are attributed to their behavior. Considering the higher black infection rates, the population must make a commitment to adhere to the safe practices.
COVID-19 infections and death rates among African Americans are likely to remain high despite adhering to the safe practices due to the influence of adverse social determinants of health. The majority of African Americans live in communities that are characterized by high crime rates, high housing density and poor access to healthy foods. The housing crisis facing this population is attributed to their low socioeconomic status, which is a risk factor that could be attributed to the high death rates among African Americans (Gravlee 1). Local and state governments should take immediate measures to address these adverse social determinants of health that contribute to the high mortality rates.
Local community efforts in addressing the unequal impact of COVID-19 on African Americans should focus on address racial inequalities in healthcare access. Addressing healthcare disparities will ensure that African Americans are able to access healthcare services like their white counterparts. Local government must ensure that healthcare practitioners provide the same quality care to people of color as they give to the white population. This will ensure that African Americans seeking healthcare services are not neglected in medical facilities.
Transforming Initiative the Community can initiate
The racial disparities in healthcare provision to African American are attributed to a broader racist problem that has existed in America for decades. For decades, there have been inequalities in the application of healthcare to black Americans. According to the US CDC, testing and treatment guidelines of COVID-19 in the U.S. has mainly prioritized on the white population and individuals who had travelled abroad (Kim et al. 21). Consequently, black patients living in high populated and low-income areas such as Queens do not get tested quickly enough. As a result, the majority succumb to the disease before being tested something that could explain the reason for high mortality rates amongst African Americans. In addition, slow public outreach and limited testing in low-income communities that are inhibited by African Americans have resulted in a significant increase in infection and mortality rates.
The transformative initiative that the community should embrace includes ensuring that data on COVID-19 testing and treatment is tracked by race. This will ensure that cases of disproportionate testing and treatment are addressed. Without demographic data, it would be challenging for health lawmakers and officials to address inequities in health testing and outcomes. Racial breakdowns of data will bring transparency about the measures that federal and state governments have taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic among different racial groups.
Conclusion
Historically, African Americans have always been marginalized based on the many incidences of police brutality. Today, the disproportionately high mortality rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic confirm the already known facts about racial discrimination against African Americans. The systematic and racial inequities in the U.S. indicate that leadership is broken and devoid of inclusivity and humility needed to ensure public health and safety of all populations. Racial inequities in healthcare, housing and economic empowerment should be addressed to ensure that African Americans get the same opportunity to avoid risk factors attributed to COVID-19 complications. However, black people must adhere to the recommended safe practices such as social distancing and hand hygiene because their ignorance and scepticism about COVID-19 have also been to blame for the high inflection and mortality rates among African Americans.
Works Cited
Clarke, Harold, and Paul Whiteley. “Economic Inequality can help Predict Covid-19 deaths in the U.S.” USApp–American Politics and Policy Blog, 2020,p 41-46
Evelyn, Kenya. “‘It’s a Racial Justice Issue’: Black Americans Are Dying in Greater Numbers from Covid-19.” The Guardian, 8 Apr. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/its-a-racial-justice-issue-black-americans-are-dying-in-greater-numbers-from-covid-19.
Gravlee, Clarence. “Racism, Not Genetics, Explains Why Black Americans Are Dying of COVID-19.” Scientific American Blog Network, 7 June 2020, blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/racism-not-genetics-explains-why-black-americans-are-dying-of-covid-19/.
Gupta, Sujata. “Why African-Americans May Be Especially Vulnerable to COVID-19.” Science News, 14 Apr. 2020, www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-why-african-americans-vulnerable-covid-19-health-race.
Kendi, Ibram X. “Stop Blaming Black People for Dying of the Coronavirus.” The Atlantic, 14 Apr. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/race-and-blame/609946/.
Kim, Sage J., and Wendy Bostwick. “Social Vulnerability and Racial Inequality in COVID-19 Deaths in Chicago.” Health Education & Behavior: the Official Publication of the Society for Public Health Education, 2020, p.18-27
Perry, Andre M., et al. “Mapping Racial Inequity Amid COVID-19 Underscores Policy Discriminations Against Black Americans.” Brookings, 17 June 2020, www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/04/16/mapping-racial-inequity-amid-the-spread-of-covid-19/.
Yaya, Sanni, et al. “Ethnic and Racial Disparities in COVID-19-Related Deaths: Counting the Trees, Hiding the Forest.” BMJ Global Health, vol.5.no. 6, 2020, p. 23-45
