COVID-19 has shaken countries and communities all over the world, affecting everyone from world leaders to teen climate activists. So for some, this is a horror that we’re all going through, and there’s no room for race in the conversation. To those people, I say, what a privilege it must be to live in a world that has enabled you to see things as they ought to be rather than as they are. To genuinely believe that this horrific virus is an equalizer, as opposed to what it really is: a magnifying glass held up close to the fine print of America’s various systems and institutions, all of which have racist roots and foundations. Quite frankly, it’s irresponsible to discuss the impact of COVID-19 within the U.S. without discussing race.

In a March 27 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and other lawmakers requested that the federal agency collect racial and ethnic demographic data on testing and treatment for the COVID-19. As they wrote: "Existing racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and health care access may mean that the nation's response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community. Lack of information will exacerbate existing health disparities and result in the loss of lives in vulnerable communities."

Public health crises will always hit Black communities harder. These are communities that have never been lifted up — and in many cases have been intentionally knocked down by decades of systemic racism. Cities with large Black and brown populations, like Chicago, New York, and New Orleans, have seen huge numbers of COVID-19 cases. States have also been releasing their own racial and ethnic demographic data about the toll the novel coronavirus has taken, and the findings hold stark truths about racial inequalities in health outcomes.

According to ProPublica, as of last Friday morning, 81% of the 27 people who died in Milwaukee County were Black. Only 26% of Milwaukee County’s total population is Black. In Charlotte, North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, 43.9% of the 303 confirmed cases are Black residents; only 32.9% of Mecklenburg County’s population is Black. Michigan has the third most confirmed cases and deaths in the United States, and according to data released by the state’s health department, Black residents make up 33% of those confirmed cases and 41% of those deaths. Only 14.1% of Michigan’s population is Black. According to the Department of Public Health in Illinois, a state with a 14.6% Black population, Black residents account for 28% of its confirmed cases. In the city of Chicago alone, where Black residents make up only 29% of the population, they account for 61 of the 86 recorded deaths — that’s 70%. The same story is playing out in Louisiana: 70% of people who've died from COVID-19 are Black, but only 32% of the state’s population is.

What could be causing these disproportionate numbers? When it comes to COVID-19, preexisting and chronic health conditions appear to heighten the risks associated with infection and increase the fatality rate of this virus. Black communities nationwide are more prone to having these underlying health risks, having been forced, for generations, to live in neighborhoods with more air pollution and in overcrowded, segregated housing.

Then there are the disparities in health care access and quality for Black Americans. As NPR reported, a recent study of several states found that doctors may be less likely to test Black people with COVID-19 symptoms. In the cities that do have testing sites, some of their locations seem to imply whose lives are considered most valuable. In Nashville, NPR reported that more affluent areas have had testing sites up and running, whereas three of the city’s drive-through testing centers in diverse neighborhoods were closed for weeks because they were unable to obtain testing equipment and protective gear.

Given all of this, why is the Center for Disease Control not publicly releasing racial and ethnic demographic data on COVID-19 tests, cases, or fatalities?

Perhaps that’s too much to expect from the Trump administration. But perhaps it’s also because America is so uncomfortable talking about and looking plainly at the fact of racism in this country. To tell the truth about the coronavirus would be to tell the truth about race in America. It’s easier to talk about it as an “equalizer” than to look at who is being disproportionately harmed by this pandemic — and why. Our federal agencies need to release the data, and as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted, “COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.” We’ll never “flatten the curve” on racism if we don’t diagnose it and take the time to come up with a treatment — not just for the symptoms, but for the disease itself.

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