April 4, 2020

"We have little publicly available data about the racial makeup of those Americans who have been tested, those who have tested positive for the coronavirus..."

"... those who have been hospitalized, those who have become critically ill, those who have recovered, or those who have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s information site does not offer racial data. Neither does the Johns Hopkins University database used by CNN, The New York Times’ count, nor the COVID Tracking Project. Few states, municipalities, or private labs are releasing their data by race. On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health became one of the few state offices to release some racial data. And the data showed a pandemic within the pandemic: African Americans are significantly overrepresented in infection rates in Illinois, while whites and Latinos are significantly underrepresented. African Americans make up 14.6 percent of the state population, but 28 percent of confirmed cases of the coronavirus. White people comprise 76.9 percent of the Illinois population, and 39 percent of the confirmed cases. Latinos comprise 17.4 percent of the state population, and 7 percent of the cases. In Illinois, Asian Americans were the only racial group without a significant disparity between their state population, at 5.9 percent, and confirmed cases, at 4 percent.... What we are seeing in Illinois could be happening nationwide—we just don’t know.... And Americans don’t seem to care to know. I suspect that some Americans believe that racial data will worsen racism.... Maybe I need to stop making everything about race, as my critics say.... Maybe some people fear that if racial data were to show that COVID-19 is disproportionately harming people of color, then white people will stop caring... Maybe there is only a class issue here...."

From "Why Don’t We Know Who the Coronavirus Victims Are?/The coronavirus is infecting and killing Americans of all races. But there’s little public data on whether the virus is having a disproportionate impact on some communities" by Ibram X. Kendi (in The Atlantic).

Another "maybe" (not mentioned by Kendi): Maybe it's a matter of pre-existing health conditions, notably diabetes.

It is interesting that the racial statistics are not getting out. I'm guessing it's either because it's difficult at this point to report them accurately or — more likely — because the officials believe that we're better off not thinking in these terms. People already feel bad about the virus, so why exacerbate the pain by making us feel that there's some evil human-made unfairness going on? And why give some people and not others a reason to think that this force of nature is picking favorites based on their race? Isn't it better to keep people feeling that we're all in this together, sharing a great human interest with the entire world?

428 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   401 – 428 of 428
walter said...

"If you are, the numbers will show it soon."
If you mean broad numbers vs individual cases, not necessarily.
It's unclear how often its being used.
The first small trials are likely H or H+A w/o zinc.

Howard said...

It appears that Thomas has resigned himself to the inevitable. Not all of us are ready to give up. I've added baba ramdev pranayam and wim Hof breathing exercises to my daily routine.

Don't flatter yourself Tim, you are much too earnest, patient, nice and reasonable to compare yourself to me.

narciso said...

oh that's unusual

narciso said...

might this mean something

mockturtle said...

Uh-oh. This is getting weird: NORAD, Northcom Move Personnel To Cheyenne Mountain Bunker Amid Pandemic
I'm beginning to take my cospiracy-minded younger daughter more seriously.

Mark said...

What kind of nut subscribes to the idea that the world is 6,000 years old.

And what kind of nut follows this kinds of things?

Joanne Jacobs said...

I suspect that blacks are more likely to live in cities, more likely to live in crowded conditions and more likely to use public transit, among other variables. They definitely are more likely to have diabetes, which apparently makes COVID-19 more serious. It should be fairly easy to compare the urban/suburban/rural risk factors, which will be useful in deciding who gets to transition first from stay-at-home rules. Focusing on race is not useful.

Mark said...

Uh-oh. This is getting weird: NORAD, Northcom Move Personnel To Cheyenne Mountain Bunker Amid Pandemic

If it gets really bad, expect more VIPs going to Cheyenne Mountain.

The stargate is there and they will evacuate to the Beta site.

pacwest said...

Churches are closed. Casinos are closed. When Heaven and Hell agree on the same thing....

n.n said...

Calm down

Yes. The immediate cause of the excess deaths is a social contagion herding people, forcing the gross mismanagement of resources and shedding in a renewable, sustainable process. Hopefully, the virus has evolved and breached the threshold where it will now self-abort in dodo dynasties. In the meantime, we follow prudent and bold steps to control spread, contain social contagion, and mitigate their progress.

Fernandinande said...

Calm down

I wonder which names they're posting under.

Nancy Reyes said...

the data notes the percentages of the state popultion, but I suspect the black community is mainly urban, so a better analysis would be to compare to the percentage of urban minorities.
if the disease tends to spread in urban populations, this might account for the disparities.
So the data might over estimate the "minority" population.

Sheridan said...

Forget race, analyze wealth. Wonder what those stats would reveal.

tim in vermont said...

I am not sure that Cuomo scouring Upstate New York for ventilators is that great of an idea politically.

gilbar said...

Joanne Jacobs said...
I suspect that blacks are more likely to live in cities, more likely to live in crowded conditions and more likely to use public transit, among other variables. They definitely are more likely to have diabetes, which apparently makes COVID-19 more serious


And, for the Ten Millionth time... Blacks are MUCH more likely to Smoke, both tobacco and other things

Fernandinande said...

According to the “7,000 Years' Doctrine," if the Earth is 6,000 years old, then we still have a 1,000 years before Christ returns? Or is the age of man (6,000 years) followed by the 1,000-year reign of Christ? It's pretty confusing.

2 Peter 3:8–9: "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

So 6,000 years = 6000*365 days = 2,190,000 Lord days * 1000 years per day = 2,190,000,000 years.

Which is fairly close to the recent guesses for the earliest life, around 3 to 4 billion years ago, and, perhaps more significantly, it's about halfway between the earliest single cell life and the earliest known bilaterian.

Gospace said...

We now have an idea of the racial makeup of victims in Queens, New York City.
https://amgreatness.com/2020/04/03/why-is-queens-the-hotspot-of-hotspots-in-the-nations-coronavirus-crisis/
Is anyone besides me not surprised?

RobinGoodfellow said...

Minorities hardest hit!

Bob Smith said...

I think the CDC should be investigating this issue. They don’t have much to do.

Fernandinande said...

I think the CDC should be investigating this issue. They don’t have much to do.

I'm number-crunching from home. If the CDC has any extra numbers, I'll be happy to crunch them up pretty well.

Fernandinande said...

How surgeons, pilots, gov't employees, etc are working from home.

Narr said...

I'm notworking from home.

Narr
So far, it's working

Narr said...

OK, mock. Lou-uh-vuhl.

Narr
in Kaintuck

I'm Not Sure said...

"Forget race, analyze wealth. Wonder what those stats would reveal."

In Idaho, Blaine County makes up 1% of the state's population but has 38% of the state's covid infections. Sun Valley is in Blaine county.

Known Unknown said...

"Trump also says he's the "least racist person.""

Sorry, that was supposed to be "reast lacist person."

Known Unknown said...

"I will just point out that Italy stopped increasing the rate of testing at almost the same time that the numbers of new cases plateaued. I have warned everyone repeatedly that the numbers of new cases each day is roughly proportional to the numbers of tests per day at that time. In Italy's case, you can't actually show that new cases has plateaued- all that can be shown from the data is that testing itself has plateaued (in Italy's case, at 40,000 tests/day), giving the same rough 8-13% positive rate. If we had data on turn-away rates, we might be in a better position to judge this, but no country gives that."

This is why random sampling is important.

mockturtle said...

Known Unknown: And this is why most statistical models don't mean shit.

DEEBEE said...

We live in a society where, as a POC, my victories are perhaps mine and for sure my herd’s superiority. But my defeats are the fault of the pale-o-supremacy

«Oldest ‹Older   401 – 428 of 428   Newer› Newest»