The coronavirus pandemic has now spread to every corner of South Carolina, infecting people in all 46 counties. But the infectious disease has particularly affected a vulnerable demographic.
The virus is disproportionately targeting and killing blacks in South Carolina, according to newly released data that highlight long-standing health disparities in the state of Palmetto.
African Americans make up just 27 percent of the population of SC, but account for 46 percent of deaths in the state of Palmetto by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to data released this week by state health officials. This is more than any other ethnicity.
Experts say that African Americans are at a greater risk of contracting the disease because they are more likely to have underlying medical problems, such as diabetes, heart and lung disease. This is partly due to a historic lack of access to health care, especially in rural areas of the state, experts added.
“We know that people with these underlying chronic illnesses and chronic conditions are more predisposed, along with the elderly, to having more serious illnesses and the worst outcomes for COVID-19,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, a medical advisor to the SC Department Health and Environmental Control.
The trend is not unique to South Carolina, where the coronavirus reached 2,792 people, killing 67.
African Americans represent only 32% of Louisiana’s population, but account for 70% of COVID-related deaths in the state. Chicago’s numbers are almost identical.
About 40% of Michigan residents who succumbed to the disease are black, although African Americans make up only 14% of the population.
President Donald Trump acknowledged the problem at a news conference this week.
“Why is it three or four times more for the black community than for other people?” he said Tuesday. “It doesn’t make sense and I don’t like it.”
SC health officials publish a racial analysis of the state’s COVID-19 case once a week and add an analysis of deaths for the first time this week.
Six of the 10 counties with the highest infection rates in South Carolina have black populations above the state average.
They mainly include smaller counties – Clarendon, Lee, Sumter, Fairfield and Union – as well as the urban county of Richland, which has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the state with 417.
Charleston County, with a black population that corresponds to the state average, has the second highest number of cases, with 313.
African Americans account for about 38% of the state’s COVID cases so far. But that fee is probably very small, said Dr. Helmut Albrecht, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Palmetto Health-USC Medical Group.
“We are testing mostly whites,” said Albrecht, an infectious disease specialist. “There is clearly a test gap.”
Black Southern Carolinians who contract the disease have a much higher mortality rate than their counterparts, the data show.
The numbers make sense to declare Congressman Leon Howard, an African-American who chairs the SC’s medical affairs committee.
African Americans have been treated unfairly in the workplace and in healthcare for decades, he said. This creates a spiral in which black families cannot afford nutritious meals or preventive health care, he said. Medical conditions like hypertension and diabetes are passed down from generation to generation, said Howard.
“You’re not making a lot of money, you go to McDonald’s and get a Happy Meal instead of a healthy meal,” said Howard.
Richland County Council President Paul Livingston said that many African Americans have jobs considered “essential”, which puts them on or near the front lines of the crisis.
“I just think it’s more systemic and historical,” said Livingston, who is an African American. “(African Americans) are more likely to have jobs that they cannot be protected in. When you look at those essential jobs outside the medical profession, many of them are occupied by African Americans. When you look at who you will choose to remove the trash , who is stocking in supermarkets; in most of these situations, you are looking at low-income people who have to go to work, whether they want to or not. “
State Senator Darrell Jackson, an African-American pastor from Richland County, said the numbers point to a lack of health coverage for many southern black Carolinians, especially those living in rural areas.
“When you are in poor health and when your primary care is going to emergency rooms, you have underlying conditions,” said Jackson, a Democrat from Columbia. “Here comes COVID-19 and is prepared for exactly that.”
Jackson believes the state’s black residents would have done better if South Carolina had joined 35 other states in accepting the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
The state rejected federal money, which would have provided health coverage for South Carolina’s poorest, under Republican governments. Nikki Haley and Henry McMaster, who considered this a waste.
McMaster’s office on Thursday noted that several states that have accepted the expansion of Medicaid, including Louisiana, Illinois and Michigan, have seen huge racial disparities.
“Every life is precious and it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from,” said McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes. “We are learning more and more about this virus and how it affects people every day. This finding is absolutely shocking.
“With regard to the expansion of Medicaid, I think it is simply not the time to talk about politics like this,” he added. “But the evidence suggests that expanding states are facing the same kind of extremely unfortunate and sad discrepancies that we are seeing.”
On Wednesday, state health officials said they were working to resolve the disparity by encouraging South Carolina residents to wash their hands regularly, stay at home and practice social detachment. DHEC is recruiting pastors to help spread the word, officials said.
Albrecht, the doctor at the USC, said there was a perception in some black communities that they would not be affected by COVID – similar to decades ago, when many Americans thought that only gay men could contract HIV.
He recommended further disclosure by local authorities and civic leaders to emphasize the importance of social detachment.
“It’s working,” he said. “And if not done in African American communities, it will get worse.”
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin pushed for more COVID-19 tests, arguing that more data could be useful to stem the spread of the virus, especially in black communities.
“This highlights an Achilles’ heel in United States health policy,” said Benjamin, who is the first African-American mayor in the capital’s history.
Columbia recently struck a $ 150,000 deal with a private laboratory in Greenville for thousands of coronavirus tests, which will initially focus on rescuers and other frontline city government officials, but can also be sent to the private sector at an emergency. North Columbia and adjacent areas in Northeast Richland County constitute the largest group of COVID-19 cases in the state, according to an analysis of state data.
“This country, this state, this city and those (African American neighborhoods) in the mid-eastern part of the city and North Columbia will continue to suffer if we don’t start preparing to slow this pandemic through appropriate and aggressive testing, so that people can get back to work, “said Benjamin. “The reality is that we are dealing with the first wave. We need to invest early to mitigate the resurgence of the virus in waves two and three.”
Chris Trainor and Andy Shain contributed to this story.