"The death rate has been higher in poorer neighborhoods where more people of color live. When Covid-19 came to New York City, rich people threw their Rimowa rolling bags into their Audi Q8s and decamped. But people who are less likely to have access to health care, less likely to have jobs they can do from home, more likely to share housing—as usual, they're the ones who bear the brunt of the disease."
No the pandemic isn't targeting black people. It was thought that because COVID-19 is a communicable disease, population density is a primary determinant of how devastating it is. But population density doesn't explain why some cities with higher population density had lower mortality per population than a city with lower population density but a higher mortality per population. Population density does not explain why poor people and old people and health care workers make up most of our deaths. Or why in a rural setting, a meat packing plant and a prison became the epicenter of a spike in cases where there was none outside its walls.
If population density were to be a solid metric for the pandemic then why are some cities in the world seemed to be doing very well. An example would be Singapore and Hong Kong. To understand how the pandemic kills, we should look at the victim profile. For example old people would certainly need caregivers, delivery persons, and other social support. They wont be able to afford a separate house or apartment. Workers who cannot work at home, whose work places aren't safe. Speaking of which, health workers are certainly putting their lives on the line to give needed medical services. The rest of us have removed ourselves in varying degrees from this victim profile through social distancing and changes in our lifestyle however involuntary that may be.
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