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Who’s getting it and who’s dying from it?

LA Times: New Data Reveals COVID-19 Is Killing Younger Black and ...

I thought you might be interested in seeing the demographic breakdown of the coronavirus in California. This is from a project undertaken by the LA Times which compiles all the information and updates it daily.

Right now California’s caseload is rising but it appears that the hospitals are holding up pretty well.

This tells us that young people who are going out into the world to work or protest need to be careful of their parents and grandparents. I’m sure they know that but it’s a good idea to reinforce it since it appears that the pandemic is obviously no longer seen as a reason to avoid contact with others.


Here’s the breakdown for people aged 50-64:

It’s the same for seniors until they get above 80 and then more white people die than anyone else.

The explanation for all of this is obviously rooted in poverty and racism. And it’s horrifying.

This is from April and its been born out in all the data since then. It’s not just California:

An analysis published by the Los Angeles Times on Saturday reveals that Black and Latino Californians aged 18 to 64 are dying at higher rates than their white or Asian peers, relative to population, as the pandemic continues to highlight deep inequalities across the country.

According to the Times:

When accounting for each group’s share of the population, black and Latino patients under the age of 65 had higher rates of fatality than even older blacks and Latinos—although people over 65 still make up the overwhelming majority of COVID-19 deaths. The trend is particularly noticeable among those age 18 to 49, the Times analysis found…

Among patients ages 18 to 49, black residents are dying nearly two and a half times as often as their share of the state’s population. By comparison, black people 65 and older are dying twice as often as their share of that age group. Latino death disparities also go down as patients get older, the analysis found.

The new reporting adds extra numbers to a powerful preliminary analysis performed by my Mother Jones colleagues Eddie Rios and Sinduja Rangarajan published mid-April, which found that Black people overall have disproportionately contracted and died from the coronavirus. In 20 of the 28 states plus DC for which a usable racial breakdown of infection data was provided, Black people make up a larger share of coronavirus infections than they do of the general population.

According to that reporting:

In 18 of the 23 states plus DC for which a usable racial breakdown of fatality data was provided, Black people likewise make up a disproportionately large share of coronavirus fatalities. In Michigan, Black people are 14 percent of the state’s population but 33 percent of its coronavirus cases and 40 percent of its deaths. In Wisconsin, Black people are six percent of the state’s population but 25 percent of its coronavirus cases and 39 percent of its deaths.

Be careful out there.

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