In response to another post, I thought this was significant enough to bring forward as a post by itself. The question was why the disparity of why black and hispanic communities are reporting higher numbers of Covid ingections and deaths. It not a complete list, but a start.
POVERTY, POVERTY. POVERTY, POVERTY.
Most of us do not see poverty on a regular basis. We do not travel into the neighborhoods that are impoverished on purpose. They are not part of our experience. We do not think about them. America is so rich with material goods that most of us automatically assume that everybody gets what they need. Some have more or better material goods, but we all have what we need.. WRONG.
Some of us work in impoverished communities. We see it daily. Here are things that those of us see that contributes to a higher incidence of Covid deaths are as follows:
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Poverty means that one cannot afford heathly diets. Diets are based upon things that are less expensive and come in larger quantities. Most of these foods are low in nutrition, but high in carbohydrates. Meats are usually poorer cuts and tend to have more hormones, and antibiotics.
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As a consequence of their diet there tends to be a greater incidence of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
3.Health care for this group is limited. Many are employed in industries that do not offer health care as part of the job benefits. Private health insurance is either too expensive, or what is affordable has very high copays or deductibles. Their alternative becomes the emergency room, which benefits nobody. On top of this they have fewer choices of doctors that will accept arrangements that this community can afford.
- Many of this community do not trust the government, especially under this Administration.
5.Economic stress from the above conditions add to the health issues.
6.Members of this community are the last to be offered tests, vaccines, and medical help. If the medical practioners become forced to prioritize health services during this pandemic, this community will be lowered to the lowest priority position.
7.This community are the least educated. This occurs for many reasons. Being less educated, they are not aware of the implications or opportunities that may exist. They are suspicious of suggestions they do not understand or are foreign to their realm of experience.
8.This community mostly finds employment in the service industries; health fields, essential transportation industries, grocery fields, etc. They are forced to work when others are able to "shelter in place". Therefore, they have an increased probability of contracting the virus.
Poverty is not always a matter of choice or hard work. Many people in this condition work two or three jobs, and are incredibly hard workers. Meritocracy and social vertical ascent is a myth for these people. Social stratification in society is normal. The way poverty is handled tells one how enlightened that society is.
9. Finally, many of these families live in cultures that either depend upon extrnded families to ptovide enough combined income to survive. Or they come from a culture which emphasizes lsrgecfamily gatherings in good times and bad times.
So in closing, it is no surprise that there exists a disparity in Covid-19. White privilege and economic privilege allows a large part of the society to ignore, or otherwise overlook those in society that live in poverty. Plus the conditions they find themsrlves on amplifies their likelihood of succumbing to the virus.
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6 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I think the jury is still out on this one...
Cutiebeauty
Level 9
Apr 12, 2020
0
I disagree CB. 31 years teaching in these communities suggests something else. I suspect you have a social science or psychology background based on your responses over the last two years. I believe that a preponderance of social scientists agree with my argument.
@t1nick some factors not considered are religious affliction, DNA differences, and maybe even melatonin levels in these races... I don'think it's as simple as saying its all attributed to being poor... That's way I say the jury is still out on this..
Even rich and wealthy people are getting sick and dying... And it's not really expensive to eat a healthy diet.. Many choose fast food for convenience...
It's true, I did not consider those physiological factors in my original post. Poverty, culture, and the relationships are multi-faceted and complex.
I still disagree with your conclusion on the diet. It doesnt fit the anecdotal evidence I see daily. Diet is often tied to ethnicity and culture. Certain foods have cultural importance and it's almost impossible to change the practice. To learn a new compendium of recipes is not necessarily a priority with those in economic peril. Dealing with travails of just making ends meet often means you fall back on what is known and familiar.
Yes, they do fall back on fast food. Even the poor like to feel occasionally like they are part of the bigger society. In the 70's we talked something called the hidden poor. People living in the poverty in the rust belt would often have brand new Cadillacs. They couldnt afford to feed their kids or pay the rent, but they had a new car regularly. They sunk all their resources into maintaining an assemblance of social acceptability. It was a status and ego thing. Fast food may act similarly. Not wise, but it happens.
Of course it's more than just poverty. But the highest number of deaths in the urban center are in the black and hispanic communities. It was one of the topical questions all last week in the news cycle. Even Gov. Cuomo asked the question on his press conference last Wednesday why are these two communities feeling the brunt of this virus.
@t1nick ones diet is certainly tied to culture but every culture has nutritional meals...
For example
Italian : meat sauce and pasta
Hispanic : rice and beans, etc
Caucasian : meatloaf and potatoes
Among other things of course... All easy to make and inexpensive... The thing is, fast food is more convenient... It's an American thing I'd say...
Beans are an incomplete protein and need corn to make a complete protein. Otherwise it is just hollow carbohydrates. Historically, NA and Hispanics ate a combination of beans and corn that made a complete protein and was healthy. That is not as true today.
Due to poverty, wild rice which has important nutrients was healthy. But due to finances, nowadays they have replaced wild rices with white rice which is cheaper. White rice, by being bleached has little or no nutritional value. It fills you up, but offers little nutrition.
Unless you make your own meat sauce from scratch, using canned tomato sauce has significant amounts of both salt and sugar added. America has developed an addiction for these flavors which unfortunately add to the diseases listed in my original post.
I'd have to think about meatloaf and potatoes. Potatoes are mostly starch and I know about their connection to the Great potato Famine that brought Irish persons to the US in a great migration.
@t1nick rice and beans are typically not eaten by itself 
it's usually accompanied by pork or other complete protein and sometimes even corn tortillas or tacos.
I use canned tomato paste and / or fresh tomatoes for my sauces... Tomato paste only has two hundred mgs of sodium per six ounce can... Considering a person needs two thousand mgs a day, that's a drop in the bucket...
Very true about the corn and beans usually accompanied by a meat. Due to finances its usually a poor grade of meat that traditionally is high in hormones and antibiotics to promote the animal's growth prior to going to market. Most of this community cannot afford organic or range fed meats.
Since we are mostly talking about urban dwellers. I doubt they are raising there own livestock.
Is one can of tomato sauce is the only processed food they used in their diet. You would be absolutely correct. But they are using any canned vegetable product in combination the amount of salt and sugar add up. Sm anti-salt movement three decades ago forced canning companies to moderate the amount of salt in their product. But no such successful campaign was launched against sugar. One of the reasons for the high incidence of obesity and diabetes in this country.
Good conversation today. I'm enjoying the tete e tete.
@t1nick if there are hormones and antibiotics in the poorer grade cuts, it's in the higher grade cuts also... It's from the same animal, right? I don't consume much meat in any case...
Ummm... Obesity.... It's more complex than just the food people eat or the amounts of salt and sugar in their food... It's lack of exercise... Most children and people in general are sitting behind a computer (for work, social media) or gameboy for hours on end... This, combined with high calorie fast food and snacks, along with soda and lattes from Starbucks, this causes obesity... Just a general laziness... Imo
Not exactly. You can have a sirloin from a animal fed hormones and antibiotics, but it will be much cheaper than an animal that is range fed or "organic". Being from the west, this has bern a big political fight since the mid-90's.
I agree with your assessment of obesity. It is complex and indeed physical activity is a big part of it. Too much computer time and video games. Many do not even know the out-of-doors today.
When I was preparing for bicycle ride through France, I embarked in the Atkinson's diet: high protein, little carbohydrates, in an attempt to get in shape. It worked, but is was not easy. Thank heavens I had Whole Foods ar my disposal and the money to afford it. I had to carefully which vegetables I ate so as to ingest the least amount of sugars (useless carbohydrates) as possible.
My school population, with the exception of a very few could not have afforded my diet, nor would that want yoo. Lol.
@t1nick when I compared the different cuts, I was referring to what is readily available in the local supermarkets.. Of course range fed or organic anything is more expensive... I'm talking in general here...
As for your preparing for that bike ride, you must have switched to a high carb diet prior to the race for energy, right?
Not really. The trip was an entire month long covering most of the entire west coast of France. Once I hit my target weight and conditioning target, I left immediately for the trip. While in France though, I lived mostly on moule (mussels), red wine, chacoutes (suasages) and various cheeses. Lol. A very different diet to be sure.
Zzzzzz! Next time just use your last paragraph summation and I might not fall asleep.
Mofo1953
Level 9
Apr 11, 2020
0
Go ahead sleep. I'm glad that you already have this knowledge and understanding. That means you are in a position to reach out and assist when the opportunity arises to these communities.
I agree with everything you said and one of the first things that was so obvious was that so many poor Americans HAVE to go to work to feed their family, they do not have the luxury of staying home or working from home because they SERVE THE REST OF AMERICA.They have become some of the most important members of our society but they are paid and respected the least.
ReadyforaChange
Level 7
Apr 11, 2020
3
Totally agree.
I have done some travelling in the Phillipines and noticed that people have very bad diets. Once upon a time it was vegetable based with a very small amount of meat or fish while now it is almost no vegetables at all. Pork seem to be king there. People also eat an incredible amount of McDonalds, and other fast food. It is much of a status symbol to be able to buy fast food.
Jolanta
Level 9
Apr 11, 2020
1
I have seen a couple of other factors mentioned elsewhere, although in reality they are probably derived from the poverty factor:
- Many in the inner city live in crowded conditions. It's hard to practice social distancing when there is nowhere else to go.
- Many poor people have to ride the bus to go anywhere. That means people may be exposed to a host of others who may infect them, and there's no way to track that chain of transmission.
citronella
Level 7
Apr 11, 2020
2
Excellent points and all valid, the missing element that will be the most dangerous is when the system starts to get overwhelmed and triage must be undertaken. Save the rich, old white guy or the poor, young black guy? These will be life and death decisions that will be made with prejudice in some instances.
Surfpirate
Level 9
Apr 11, 2020
3
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