Thanks to presidential leadership amounting to little more than xenophobic accusations and denial, the coronavirus pandemic is spreading so rapidly in the United States that New York alone has more COVID-19 cases than China’s Hubei province, where the pandemic originated. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that after “near-record” testing Monday night, his state saw an increase of 9,298 cases of the virus, bringing its total number of COVID-19 cases to more than 75,790. Hubei reported 67,801 cases Monday, according to CNBC.
The governor also announced his brother CNN anchor Chris Cuomo is one of the thousands of New Yorkers who tested positive for the virus. “He's young, in good shape, strong, not as strong as he thinks, but he will be fine,” the older Cuomo said. “But there’s a lesson in this.” He later added: "Everyone, everyone is subject to this virus. It is the great equalizer." Yes and no. History often shows that when it rains in wealthy white communities, it pours for low-income black and brown people.
Massachusetts lawmakers Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren pointed out that we have no comprehensive system in place to track the demographics of those with COVID-19, making accountability for addressing any racial disparities in how we diagnose and treat the virus a distant wish.
The legislators sent a letter making the request for better tracking to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar Friday, and Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Rep. Robin Kelly signed the request, according to The Boston Globe and The Associated Press.
“Decades of structural racism have prevented so many Black and Brown families from accessing quality health care, affordable housing, and financial security, and the coronavirus crisis is blowing these disparities wide open," Warren said in a statement to The Boston Globe. “We need the government to step up in a big way to ensure that communities of color have equal access to free testing and treatment. Congresswoman Pressley and I aren't going to let up until we see solid data and real progress."
New York City, where the majority of the state’s COVID-19 cases is concentrated, has a population that is about 24% black and 29% Hispanic, according to U.S. Census figures. Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and New Orleans, cities with populous black and brown communities, have also become hot spots for the pandemic, the Globe reported. “Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole,” Warren and Pressley wrote in the letter the AP obtained.
Gov. Cuomo said the United States has been behind the virus from day one. “We have been playing catch up,” he said. “We underestimated this virus. It’s more powerful, it’s more dangerous than we expected.”
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