The White House coronavirus task force reports there has been evidence African Americans are dying at a higher rate than other demographics amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
The data is still being studied, according to President Donald Trump, but National Institutes of Health’s Dr. Anthony Fauci is estimating the African American death rate is a result of common underlying health conditions within that community that also have a higher rate of serious to critical infections from COVID-19.
“This is a real problem and it’s showing up very strongly in our data on the African American community,” Trump told reporters at the daily press briefing Tuesday. “And we’re doing everything in our power to address this challenge.
“It’s a tremendous challenge; it’s terrible.”
Trump’s task force is working on providing support to the hard-hit African American community in the U.S.
“It’s been disproportional,” he added. “They’re getting hit very, very hard.”
Fauci noted the task force is looking at the co-morbidities of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and asthma as potential causes for the “disparity” of coronavirus deaths in the U.S., because those also disproportionately affect minority population, in particular African Americans.
“We have a particularly difficult problem, an exacerbation of a health disparity,” Fauci said.
“Unfortunately, when you look at the predisposing conditions that lead to a bad outcome with coronavirus – the things that get people into ICUs, that require intubation, and often lead to death – they are just those very co-morbidities that are unfortunately disproportionately prevalent in the African American population.
“So, we’re very concerned about that. It’s very sad. There’s nothing we can do about it right now, except try to give them the best possible care to avoid those complications.”
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