Disproportionate COVID-19 Related Mortality Amongst African Americans in Four Southern States in the United States

Betson, D. N.; Maitra, D. A.

Background African American have been severely affected by COVID-19 noted with the rising mortality rates within the African American community. Health disparities, health inequities and issues with systemic health access are some of the pre-existing issues African American were subjected to within the southern states in the United States. Second, social distancing is a critical non-pharmacological intervention to reduce the spread of COVID-19. However, social distancing was not practical and presented a challenge within the African American community, specifically, in the southern states. Objective This article assesses the effect of COVID-19 on African American in the southern states. Methodology This short communication queried the publicly available Department of Health statistics on COVID-19 related mortality and underlying health conditions in four southern states (Alabama [AL], Georgia [GA], Louisiana [LA] and Mississippi [MS]) with a high proportion of African American residents. Second, unacast COVID-19 toolkit was used to derive a social distancing (SD) grade for any given state, based on three different metrics: (i) percent change in average distance travelled (ii) percent change in non-essential visits and (iii) decrease in human encounters (compared to national baseline). Results Across the four states, on average, as many as 54% of COVID-19 related deaths are in the African American community, although this minority group comprises only 32% of the population cumulatively. This article finds that all four southern states received a social distancing grade of F. COVID-19 have demonstrated that adverse outcomes are higher in individuals with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or pre-existing pulmonary compromise. Conclusion Recognizing that there is a great need for African American representation or diversity in the health workforce would be able to better address the health disparities. In addition, the lack of diversity in the healthcare system causes the morbidity and mortality rates to increase in the African American communities because it is not able to address its primary obligations within the African American communities in the southern states during COVID-19 pandemic. These primary obligations are to restore, protect, improve health and to suppress health disparities and inequalities of COVID-19 within in the African American communities. Keywords: COVID-19; African American; Mortality