New York City Exposes the Stark Disparity in How COVID-19 Affects Low-Income Communities

Consider this for perspective: with 107,263 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the five boroughs as of April 14., if New York City were a sovereign nation, it would be the sixth worst-hit country by the coronavirus. The city accounts for nearly 18% of all cases in the United States, which leads the world in infections and fatalities from the disease by a tremendous margin. Just as the pandemic has affected some states worse than others, the toll across New York City is highly uneven. It has been anecdotally apparent, since the city began releasing data by ZIP code, that poorer neighborhoods have more reported cases than the tonier blocks. A TIME analysis of the most recent data from New York City, compared against income data for each ZIP code released by the IRS, found that the divide is far more than circumstantial. The ZIP codes in the bottom 25% of average incomes represent 36% of all cases of the disease, while the wealthiest 25% account for under 10%. It is increasingly apparent that communities with fewer resources are even more at risk than might be expected. Around the country, there is a growing patchwork of evidence that low-income communities, particularly those with a high minority population, are disproportionately suffering from the outbreak. In Michigan, for example, African Americans make up 14% of the population but account for a third of infections and 40% of deaths—and that doesn’t yet include Detroit, which is about 77% African American. A C...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 interactive Source Type: news