Are racial background and Covid fatality related? It would appear so

A study conducted in the US by collating online public mortality records tried to determine this

A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine correlates racial backgrounds and ethnicity with the severity of Covid-19. The factors influencing the report were an increasing number of people being affected differently by the pandemic, and related care based on their ethnic backgrounds.

The study was conducted in the United States by collating online public mortality records of different states. Focusing on Black, Latinx, and White people, the researchers found Black men to be the most vulnerable group impacted by Covid-19 in terms of mortality, care, and access to tests/resources. ‘Ethnicity-stratified Covid-19 mortality’ was reported in New York City and 28 American states.

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Previous studies have found that men are likely to be more vulnerable to Covid-19 than women but the new study delves into the complexities revealing that race and access to resources is a bigger factor.

For instance, Black men are more likely to die from the virus than their female counterparts, who are in turn four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than White males. i.e. Black females are four times more likely to get Covid-19 than White males.

Asian American men were found to be three times less likely to die from Covid-19 than Black women but more likely than Asian women.

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The findings revealed White women to be the least vulnerable group of the lot. White men were found to be six times less vulnerable than Black men in terms of Covid-19 mortality.

Michigan and Georgia, the only states collating Covid-19 data by tracking age, race, and sex for individual Covid patients through September 2020, exhibited similarities statistical patterns of race and socioeconomic status playing a bigger role than sex with regard to Covid-19 mortality.

However, researchers pointed out that statistics had limitations, such as Michigan listing both ‘probable’ and ‘confirmed’ Covid-19 deaths, while Georgia listed just ‘confirmed’ Covid-19 deaths. Despite the limitations, the report indicates that simply stating sex as a factor affecting Covid-19 mortality is not enough as the socio-economic divide seem to have much more pronounced implications.