COVID 19 and RACE

(The Bad. The Good. And the VERY GOOD)

The state of New York and in particular New York City were essentially ground zero for the Covid 19 pandemic in the U.S.  As of this writing (7-14-2020) the NY times is reporting a total of 32,092 deaths in the state of New York alone. That works out to roughly 23% of the 138,000 deaths for the entire U.S to date. It is safe to say, that New York is further along the road of this pandemic than the rest of the country and consequently there are lessons to be learned. One of the most concerning features of the pandemic has been the disproportionate number of hospitalizations and deaths in minority communities. There are legitimate difficulties in trying to really understand the various causes for these disparities but I am just going to touch on the subject here. I hope to explore the subject in more detail in the near future. 

Here’s what we know now.

The Bad: Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans (including Alaska Native persons) have rates of infection, hospitalization and death approaching 5 times that of whites.

(Source CDC https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html )   

The Good: At this time, it looks like much of the disparity may be related to social factors as opposed to some obscure biological issue which makes COVID 19 more lethal to minority communities.  Social factors might include items such as poverty, crowded living conditions, inability to “work from home”, etc. , all of which will take time and societal will to resolve.  But that’s still a whole lot better than the alternative of dealing with a virus that’s just inherently more deadly to black and brown skinned people.

And THE VERY GOOD: The toll this virus has brought on minority communities is terrible but it’s starting to look like there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for minority communities. Both CNN and the New York Times are now reporting that certain predominantly minority neighborhoods in New York city are testing “overwhelmingly” positive for COVID 19 antibodies compared to predominantly white neighborhoods. 

The Corona neighborhood in Queens showed the highest percentage of antibodies with 68% of subjects testing positive.  Subjects of the Jackson Heights community, also in Queens, demonstrated antibodies in 56% percent of subjects tested. Compare this to residents of the Cobble Hill neighborhood, a primarily white, upscale community, where only 13% of people tested positive for antibodies.

So why is this “VERY GOOD NEWS”? Because, these numbers are getting very close to the levels at which a community actually starts to benefit form “herd immunity”. “Herd Immunity occurs when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease, making the spread from person to person statistically unlikely. Herd immunity can be obtained in one of two ways 1: by vaccination of a large percentage of the population or 2) by acquired immunity...i.e people encountering the virus and then recovering from their infection. (Source Mayo Clinic)

So what percentage of the population needs to be immune in order to begin slowing the actual spread of a virus? Well, estimates vary but most say somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-70 percent is enough to see a benefit. And we appear to be getting there in some of these minority communities which have already been hardest hit.  Hopefully these communities will soon begin to see reductions in the number of new cases. White communities demonstrating lower rates of antibodies (13-14% range) may still have a long way to go, but rest assured, Mother Nature is gradually working this out and the vast majority of those who acquire this virus will recover naturally with little problems.

Of course in the meantime, we need to work hard to protect those most at risk, primarily the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. Lifestyle modifications such as mask wearing, social distancing, avoiding crowds etc, may all have some level of protective benefit and should be considered, even if the exact degree of protection remains uncertain, for high risk individuals.

Finally, bear in mind that this whole pandemic has only been with us since early March. (Seems a lot longer doesn’t it?) Treatment for the worst cases appears to be improving rapidly. We are getting a better idea of what works and recovery rates are improving significantly.  It is likely that the next few months will see even more advances in treatment and prevention. Until then, I encourage everyone to stay safe and know that there is an end to this. We are going to be fine.

You will find links at the end of this article to the original new articles below, which I encourage you to read.

I have also created a video on the subject of COVID 19 video to help spread some of the good news which is rarely covered in the popular media. I hope you will link to and share the video with your patients, friends, and social contacts

. Stay Safe

Link To Video:

References:

68% Have Antibodies in This Clinic. Can a Neighborhood Beat a Next Wave?      (Source NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-antibodies.html )

68% of a New York clinic's patients test positive for coronavirus antibodies (Source CNN  https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/health/queens-antibody-testing-coronavirus/index.html )

https://youtu.be/h-QXstMQni4