Why US Communities of Color Carry Heaviest Burden of COVID-19

January 2021 was the deadliest month of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States, with daily average deaths of 3076 a day, according to the Petersen-KFF Health System Tracker. And on Monday, the country passed the devastating marker of 500,000 deaths since the first US death was recorded a year ago.

However, Americans have not been affected by this virus equally.

Last month, during a webinar titled “Color and COVID-19: The Virus’ Disproportionate Impact” hosted by the MJH Life Sciences™ COVID-19 Coalition, experts discussed how the virus has affected communities of color, vaccine distribution and uptake, and their visions for the future.

On this edition of Managed Care Cast, we present a short excerpt from the webinar.

“These numbers representing the really painful disproportionate toll that the virus is taking is just a subset of the discussion,” Utibe Essien, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who moderated the event, said in a white paper about 10 takeaways from the webinar.

Essien was joined by:

• Ebony Hilton, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia and the medical director of Goodstock Consulting
• Taison Bell, MD, critical care and infectious disease physician at the University of Virginia, director of the medical intensive care unit and cofounder and co-CEO of Owl Peak Labs
• Nwamaka Eneanya, MD, MPH, FASN, nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania and director of health equity, antiracism, and community engagement

Watch the entire webinar here and register for the next webinar, “Legal and Ethical Considerations of COVID-19 Vaccination” on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 6 pm ET, here.

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