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2020-04-12 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Coronavirus: Why has the virus hit African Americans so hard?
BLUF
[BBC] 'Structural racism is to blame'

As health commissioner in a city where nearly 40% of the residents are black, this misinformation was something Dr Jeanette Kowalik dealt with on a daily basis in her work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

But just as her department was forming strategies to counter the narrative that the virus was something associated with foreign travel, Covid-19 struck her city.

"In the first week, there were maybe 80 cases in the city, and 70% of them were black," Dr Kowalik tells me.

She lays bare what she thinks is the major reason why African Americans are at a disadvantage when it comes to Covid-19.

"African-Americans have more of the underlying health conditions associated with fatality (among those with coronavirus); the heart disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity," says Dr Kowalik.

She also talks of more subtle ways in which the health of African Americans may be compromised, pointing to studies that suggest that prolonged raising of stress hormone levels like cortisol lead to premature aging of the body, and that some of that "weathering" has been tied to encountering racism.

"These are all things that can be tied back to the structural racism, the policies and practices that have been in place in this country for a very long time," she says.

Dr Kowalik says the way African Americans are being impacted by this crisis and the difficulties that remain in getting a coronavirus test in low-income communities has left people feeling they are being neglected yet again.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-12 02:49|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ]  Top

#1  "African-Americans have more of the underlying health conditions associated with fatality (among those with coronavirus); the heart disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity," says Dr Kowalik.

Commonly referred to (but not by Dr. Kowalik) as 'pre-existing conditions.' But of course, if pre-existing conditions are discussed, causation must also be discussed, things like education, culture, and the like. Perhaps we really shouldn't go there. Let's just stick to racism instead.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams nails in his recent presention (found at this link).
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-12 03:17||   2020-04-12 03:17|| Front Page Top

#2 For more on the topic:

How a small Georgia city far from New York became one of the worst coronavirus hotspots in the country.

I'll refer to it as the Albany, Georgia paradox. In desperation, or a move of political expedience, the Governor of Georgia dispatched the National Guard to Albany.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-12 03:36||   2020-04-12 03:36|| Front Page Top

#3 ^Could've happened exactly the same way to lily white people, Besoeker.

p.s. This should be a lesson to all the "country" people who think that Plagues are only dangerous to "city degenerates".
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-12 03:50||   2020-04-12 03:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Structurakl racisme? Had Obalma been White he would not have been elected to dog catcher
Posted by JFM 2020-04-12 06:31||   2020-04-12 06:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Two funerals likely sparked the spread, but how the disease got to Albany in the first place remains a mystery.

It's a mystery to some people how the light works when you flip the switch on the wall. It's magic to them. Oh, and all those roads and airports magically sprung from the ground.
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-04-12 07:27||   2020-04-12 07:27|| Front Page Top

#6  A thought - not even a theory. A few days ago there was an article here advancing the idea that CV was not primarily a pulmonary disease but instead was a hematic disease. Given the prevalence of sickle-cell anemia in the African-American population, this could be a contributing factor to the high infection rate.
Posted by Mercutio 2020-04-12 07:35||   2020-04-12 07:35|| Front Page Top

#7 That would indeed follow, Mercutio. We should then also look for coronavirus problems among those Mediterranean-descended subpopulations which also have a higher tendency toward sickle cell anemia.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-04-12 07:40||   2020-04-12 07:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Black folks are often heavier therefore insulin resistance therefore weakened immune system. I would like to see outcome vs BMI for each race. Maybe that would help.
Posted by gorb 2020-04-12 07:47||   2020-04-12 07:47|| Front Page Top

#9 What race has the most asthma?
Blacks and American Indian/Alaska Natives have the highest current asthma rates compared to other races and ethnicities. In 2017, Blacks (10.1%) were 25 percent more likely than Whites (8.1%) to still have asthma.Dec 4, 2019

Current Asthma Demographics | Asthma Trends Brief | American ...

That last line is supposed to be a link, sorry.
Posted by Thimp Clusort2035 2020-04-12 07:56||   2020-04-12 07:56|| Front Page Top

#10 Strangely, or possibly not so, I've seen little with regard to the racial stats of CV from the media. The old 'what's not being said' theory ?

Japan and South Korea appear to have it under control. As mentioned in numbers 6,7,8 and 9, could there some sort of genetic predisposition ?

I doubt if anyone in the Japanese general population is much concerned about sickle-cell anemia. Harsh social and economic measures implemented to combat such a disease might be a tough sell in those parts.

Genetics? Oh no, we'd better default to Dr Kowalik's WOKE theories.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-12 08:04||   2020-04-12 08:04|| Front Page Top

#11 I think part of the story is that the BBC and the Guardian have been in a state of heightened sexual arousal ever since the number of US cases and deaths surpassed Italy's. (You couldn't get the smile off George Monbiot's face with a blow torch.) Being able to say that the virus is further evidence of American racism is just the icing on the cake.
Posted by Matt 2020-04-12 10:19||   2020-04-12 10:19|| Front Page Top

#12 Dr. recommends hydroxychloroquine and reparations twice a day.
Posted by bbrewer126 2020-04-12 12:21||   2020-04-12 12:21|| Front Page Top

#13 Re #7: You mean like Italians, TW?
Posted by Mercutio 2020-04-12 13:53||   2020-04-12 13:53|| Front Page Top

#14 Some sub-populations of Italians, Mercutio, yes. If I recall correctly, the sickle red cell mutation has appeared several times in various populations in response to endemic malaria before the modern mania for drainage and DDT.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-04-12 17:18||   2020-04-12 17:18|| Front Page Top

#15 It appears this has been updated. A crosstab on sickle-cell anemia would surely be informative.

COVID-19: Attacks the 1-Beta Chain of Hemoglobin and Captures the Porphyrin to Inhibit Human Heme Metabolism

The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is an infectious acute respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus. The virus is a positive-strand RNA virus with high homology to bat coronavirus. In this study, conserved domain analysis, homology modeling, and molecular docking were used to compare the biological roles of certain proteins of the novel coronavirus. The results showed the ORF8 and surface glycoprotein could bind to the porphyrin, respectively. At the same time, orf1ab, ORF10, and ORF3a proteins could coordinate attack the heme on the 1-beta chain of hemoglobin to dissociate the iron to form the porphyrin. The attack will cause less and less hemoglobin that can carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. The lung cells have extremely intense poisoning and inflammatory due to the inability to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen frequently, which eventually results in ground-glass-like lung images. The mechanism also interfered with the normal heme anabolic pathway of the human body, is expected to result in human disease. According to the validation analysis of these finds, chloroquine could prevent orf1ab, ORF3a, and ORF10 to attack the heme to form the porphyrin, and inhibit the binding of ORF8 and surface glycoproteins to porphyrins to a certain extent, effectively relieve the symptoms of respiratory distress. Since the ability of chloroquine to inhibit structural proteins is not particularly obvious, the therapeutic effect on different people may be different. Favipiravir could inhibit the envelope protein and ORF7a protein bind to porphyrin, prevent the virus from entering host cells, and catching free porphyrins. This paper is only for academic discussion, the correctness needs to be confirmed by other laboratories. Due to the side effects and allergic reactions of drugs such as chloroquine, please consult a qualified doctor for treatment details, and do not take the medicine yourself.
Posted by KBK 2020-04-12 21:59||   2020-04-12 21:59|| Front Page Top

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