Magic joins team eyeing minority ills

NBA icon Magic Johnson will headline a team of business executives studying the effects of health issues, including coronavirus, on at-risk people in low-income communities.

Leaders at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Health System are trying to get a grasp on health care disparities between underserved communities and the general population, an imbalance highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis.

The new Institute for

Health Equity Research panel will identify the root causes and magnitude of disparities, devise and test solutions, and take concrete action in response to findings, institute members said.

“This pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color across our country,” Johnson (inset) said in a statement.

“We must understand ‘the why’ in order to prevent further deaths. In addition, we need to address systemic health care inequities in the minority communities that have been prevalent throughout history. I am pleased to be a part of this task force and encourage others to join us in support of these efforts.”

A Pew Research Center survey last month found that 27% of black people personally knew someone who was hospitalized with or died from COVID-19, compared with just one in 10 white and Hispanic people.

In New York State, the nation’s epicenter of coronavirus cases, 18% of deaths have been black people, despite being only 9% of the population, according to data released last month.

In New York City, about 28% of deaths have been black people, while the city’s population is 22% black.

Hispanics have made up the highest death rates in both the state and the city, 14% and 34% respectively, despite being 11% of the state population and 29% of the city’s population.