STATEWIDE REPORT: How Race Fuels A Pandemic
Today, Advancement Project California as part of the RACE COUNTS initiative released How Race Fuels a Pandemic. The interactive report shows how California’s COVID-19 response has been unequal and mishandled, exacerbating a pandemic of inequality that has extracted an indisputable toll on Latinx, Black, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Native American communities.
It is imperative that our leaders understand there cannot be an economic recovery until the pandemic is contained and under control.
As elected officials manage the balance between public health experts and business interests, Californians of color pay the cost with their health and lives. We need more than mandates. Californians need financial support for small businesses, low-income entrepreneurs, and sole proprietors as well as guaranteed worker’s rights for essential workers — so our communities can heal together.
The data we have compiled reveals how:
- Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI), Black, and Latinx populations have most consistently borne the brunt of high case and death rates.
- California’s Black population, followed closely by NHPI and Latinx populations, has consistently experienced the highest death rates.
- 7-day average case rates for Latinx and NHPI populations rarely dipped below the 7 per 100K threshold and were often far above this threshold even as county economies reopened. These communities rarely fell to what is currently considered safer transmission levels.
- The state’s reopenings correlated with increases in case rates for people of color.
Throughout the pandemic, the ability of some of us to safely shelter at home has been possible only because others, primarily people of color, are risking infection and their lives to deliver our mail, groceries, and online purchases, provide care for the elderly, and perform other essential work. These people do not have the option of working remotely. Our data shows greater case rate increases, particularly for Latinx and NHPI populations followed by Black and, sometimes, AIAN people two to three weeks after periods of expanded reopening.
These findings demonstrate the mismanagement of the state’s reopening intending to spur economic activity came at the expense of communities of color. Without first containing the pandemic, we cannot have an economic recovery.
Every COVID-19 death is senseless and tragic. Last week, we reached a grim marker—more COVID-19 deaths in one day than 9/11 deaths. Unlike 9/11, COVID-19 deaths are preventable. We have the intelligence to avoid them. Our government leaders at all levels must act. We need an immediate equitable COVID-19 response and a future equitable economic recovery.