Advocates call for renewed attention to minorities as virus spreads.

Underlying conditions magnify effects of illness

WASHINGTON – Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans have many underlying health conditions, including asthma and heart disease, that could make them more vulnerable to complications from the coronavirus, leaving advocates, lawmakers and public health experts worried those communities won’t get equal access to tests and treatment as the outbreak spreads.

“The virus is an equal-opportunity crisis ... but the impact and the burden of it is not going to be shared equally,’’ said Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a public health expert and assistant professor at Columbia University in New York City. “Like most things in society, it’s going to be regressive. It’s going to be felt disproportionately by the poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized, and obviously that falls down in this country on communities of color.’’

Advocates and civil rights groups are pushing to get local and federal lawmakers to focus attention on communities of color and steer resources to places like reservations and community health centers.

Some are calling for federal officials to track the number of people of color who have died from the new coronavirus and to set up a commission to study how coronavirus is spreading in those communities.

There were about 160,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. by Mondr. day evening and more than 2,900 deaths. Officials have so far not released information on race and coronavirus cases.

“You need to do this with intention,” said Vasan, who is also president & CEO of the mental health charity Fountain Housebased in New York City. “You need to map out which communities are already at the margins of care and resources and testing and already have preconditions, disproportionate health conditions, and then say, ‘All right, how do we ensure that we’re going there?’ ”

Many people of color don’t have insurance or access to providers and quality care, experts said.

According to the census, 8.5% of whites were uninsured in 2017, compared with 10.6% of blacks, 7.3% of Asians and 16.1% of Hispanics. Melissa Clarke, former assistant dean in the Howard University College of Medicine, said the nation’s history of health disparities and the stressors faced by people of color, including racism and poverty, are factors in those communities disproportionately having the “very diseases that COVID-19 presents a problem for.”

Those include high blood pressure; diabetes; heart disease; lung diseases, including asthma and chronic bronchitis; and autoimmune diseases like lupus – all disproportionately found in blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.

Clarke said it’s not that people of color are more vulnerable to getting the virus but that they’re more vulnerable to having more severe manifestations, which can lead to hospitalization and death.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP Minorities are statistically more likely to hold many jobs that can’t be handled from home, exposing them further to the coronavirus.