The virus may not discriminate, but our healthcare system does
Written by Olivia Cordero
Former President Trump, Prince William, and (who can forget) even Tom Hanks have all, at one point, contracted COVID-19.
With every breaking-news story about which wealthy celebrity has had to self-isolate in their respective mansions, the general public is reminded that "the virus doesn't discriminate" (because the top 1% gets sick too!). This tagline, often used by politicians, journalists, and other proponents of vaccine rollouts, is used to point out that fame, wealth, or one's high social capital do not translate to inherent immunity against COVID-19 or its long-lasting health effects.
While we know that COVID has a higher mortality rate among specific demographics (such as immunocompromised individuals and the elderly), folks are generally well aware that a virus cannot choose to have a discriminatory, personal vendetta against any one person or group of people.
Yet, research shows us that COVID-19 discrimination does happen, but could be significantly decreased through the expansion of Medicaid and by providing paid sick leave that would undoubtedly ease the burden of the pandemic among harder-hit communities of Americans.
As indicated by a cross-sectional ecological analysis of cumulative COVID-19 incidence and mortality rate studied based on the first 200 days of the pandemic, it is minority communities within the U.S. that were hit the hardest by the fallout caused by COVID-19 — a trend that continues well into 2021.
An unfortunate institutionally-imposed truth for many working-class communities — namely for African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx people — is that affordable healthcare and paid sick leave is simply not an option.
While there are unavoidable factors, such as age, that play a role in the likelihood of fatality in some cases, many COVID-19 related deaths and long-term effects of the virus reflect the reality of insufficient regulation for national healthcare programs as structural racism within our institutions. Failure to expand Medicaid and paid leave to working-class families, particularly in rural areas, results in severe health disparities of which low-wage workers and non-white communities are more likely to bear the brunt.
According to recently published data by the CDC, several factors ranging from one’s physical environment, housing, occupation, education, and wealth play a significant role in determining who is at greater risk of exposure to the virus.
People in racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in areas with high rates of new COVID-19 infections. Similarly, many minority groups are disproportionately represented in essential work settings and are thereby more likely to be exposed to the virus due to stark occupational segregation.
In some cases, people simply cannot afford to miss a paycheck and are forced to choose between showing up to work while sick — thus risking further transmission of COVID-19 — or staying home. Consequently, for many low-wage workers, staying home can mean being unable to provide financial support for themselves and their families. This is especially true for single-income households with newborns or young children.
A lack of paid leave and America’s inaccessible healthcare within do not only impact individuals who take time off for medical reasons, as it also affects working parents with young children. Since the pandemic, childcare programs and schools have either shut down completely or have gone remote, thus making it difficult for working parents to find daytime care for their children.
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that has not yet implemented a national policy that would allow new parents to take paid time off. As of 2021, aside from nine states and Washington D.C. that have enacted paid family leave policies, The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ensures that most states can only grant a total of twelve weeks out of the year for unpaid family and medical leave.
This lack of paid leave and the failure to nationally expand Medicaid play a role in the spread of the virus among working-class and minority communities.
An additional factor that contributes to higher mortality rates of people of color, particularly for African Americans, is the implicit bias within medical institutions.
Research shows that African Americans are getting sicker and dying at rates higher than any other racial group — often because they are not receiving the same quality of care as their white counterparts. The dark medical history surrounding Black and non-white individuals within the U.S. dates back to slavery, and impacts modern medical institutions and the level of care (not) afforded to Black and other non-white populations.
Today, the pandemic has amplified the need for progressive healthcare reform, paid family/ medical leave, and the complete eradication of implicit biases within our medical institutions.
Through grassroots ballot measures, people all across the country have championed and won the fight for state-by-state Medicaid expansion, paid leave, and raised wages. People-powered movements have extended health coverage and livable wages to millions of Americans and continue to provide relief for many rural and working-class communities of color.
But, despite strong bipartisan support for Medicaid expansion and paid leave, many Republican legislatures continue to gerrymander in electoral practices in attempts to impede the ballot measure process. Some of these anti-democratic efforts include passing petty regulations for grassroots organizers, such as increasing the number of signatures needed to get issues on the ballot, limiting campaign contributions, and attempting to overturn or suspend voter-backed measures.
To collectively address the racial and economic disparities that have been amplified by the pandemic and our flawed healthcare system, it is necessary to consider these issues not just as public health crises, but also as a result of the deeply rooted racism that has long been a significant component of western healthcare institutions. It is also vital to understand the success and importance of ballot measures and the tangible progressive change they've brought to millions of working-class, rural, and minority communities.
By getting involved in and protecting grassroots organizers’ right to fight for economic, racial, and health-based equity via ballot measures, we can chip away at the flawed systems of oppression that plague our democracy.
Image by Klaus Nielsen via Pexels
