Racism and Public Health • Converging Viruses Wreak Havoc in Black Communities

David B. Miller

William Hanage

By David B. Miller and William Hanage

Special to The Real Deal

In recent months the world has witnessed the ravages visited upon the United States by two viruses — COVID-19 and racism — that are affecting African Americans in acute and chronic fashion. The acute effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, from higher morbidity and mortality rates from the infection, to skyrocketing unemployment, have so far has been disproportionately borne by minority communities, especially black people.

This is no accident — it is a disaster foretold in the data that show African Americans are more vulnerable to negative health outcomes of all kinds.

COVID-19 has laid bare our society's fault lines, throwing inequalities into stark relief, and few inequalities can match the long unfolding consequences of the founding sin of the United States.

The pandemic has unfolded against a background of chronic legitimized violence, arising from the virus of racism. Four weeks ago the entire world witnessed nearly nine minutes of video depicting state sanctioned lethal police violence against George Floyd. Appallingly, he is only the most recent unarmed black man to have panted the words ‘I can’t breathe’ in his final moments.  Only a few weeks earlier we saw the hunting down and slaughter of another unarmed black man by armed self-appointed representatives of “law enforcement”. These videos portray the deadly manifestations of the virus that is racism. How many similar events have occurred over the years away from the lens of a cellphone camera?

Racism, like the coronavirus, is a transmissible disease.

The convergence of these two viruses is showing more and more Americans the devastating consequences of racism in this country. Like the coronavirus, racism is a transmissible disease; it is passed on through vectors in the media and society, and within families. But unlike COVID-19, the racism virus does not visit its most dreadful effects upon those who are infected with it.

Those infected with racism target others based on the color of their skin — overwhelmingly in the United States those with black skin. The wearers of the skin are marked throughout society in ways too exhausting to list. At worst the result is death to the wearer of the hated, excluded skin.

The men and women who are sworn to protect and serve a community are not immune to racism. The extraordinary power of the racism virus to elicit anxiety and fear too often leads to senseless confrontations that end with black mothers crying and communities marching for justice.

While all known COVID-19 infections descend from a common ancestor a little more than 6 months ago,  the virus of racism is ancient and has evolved and mutated into many different forms. At times, it erupts with fear and lethal rage when those wearing black skin are merely walking home at night with Skittles or playing with a toy gun in a playground.

While we expect the intense global search for a vaccine for COVID-19 will succeed, we can only hope that the reckoning George Floyd’s murder has spurred will be sustained long enough to begin the difficult but necessary conversations and steps needed to eradicate the racism virus.

Since the start of the pandemic we have seen armed mobs protesting shutdowns, shouting (many without masks) at law enforcement officers who exhibited great restraint, lifting nary a finger, baton, or weapon to repel those "protesters". In addition, those “protesters” received support and encouragement from the White House. Yet that same White House directed law enforcement officers to use force against unarmed peaceful citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble peacefully in a public space. Is it a coincidence that they were protesting against racism?

What's most essential during this pandemic: brunch, blackjack or protest?

As public health professionals we are often asked about the impact of anti-racist protests on the pandemic. The answer is nuanced. Despite the best efforts of organizers to supply masks, hand sanitizer and encourage physical distancing, protests offer opportunities for the virus to transmit that are only enhanced by police actions that limit the ability to maintain distancing. Tear gas, and arrests compound the dangers,  especially because transmission of the virus is associated with poorly ventilated spaces.

As states open up, the opportunities for transmission that arise from the protests will dwindle in comparison to the close encounters that will occur in casinos, tattoo parlors, bars and restaurants. Given there is an historic pandemic going on, what is most essential: brunch, roulette or protesting against racial injustice?

No cure for the virus of racism will be discovered in a laboratory or another “blue ribbon” commission studying police violence. Instead this calls for a reckoning of the hearts and souls of each citizen of this nation. We can no longer close our eyes to how racism continues to place a knee on the collective necks of black Americans. The pandemic offers an opportunity to divide us, which has been avidly taken up by elements of the right-wing broadcast media who focus on maintaining inequality, rather than dismantling it.

Racism is likely to be a problem in the United States after the pandemic is done with us. It has led to untold deaths over the years, including the unequal society that places people of color at risk in the current pandemic. If the protesters now marching against that unequal society can do anything to change that and shift this country to a better place, we will owe them all a debt of gratitude.

• • •• • •

David B. Miller, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Social Work at the Jack, Joseph, & Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

William “Bill” Hanage, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Epidemiology at T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University.