Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: Hispanics, basketball, systems)

[Bridge781]

Originally Posted by Amontillado

Massachusetts coronavirus numbers: 503 deaths and 18,941 cases.

Is that on par with what we thought it would be ? I’ve lost track

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

Is that on par with what we thought it would be ? I’ve lost track

https://covid19.healthdata.org/unite.../massachusetts predicted 534 for today, so pretty close to on track for that model at least.

[Arya Stark]

What do we think of the racial disparity that is emerging.

African Americans are 40% of people with corona virus. Whites are 28%. Asian 10 to 15%.

As a white woman with O blood type I am apparently low risk.

Everyone I know who has this is asian or African American.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

What do we think of the racial disparity that is emerging.

African Americans are 40% of people with corona virus. Whites are 28%. Asian 10 to 15%.

As a white woman with O blood type I am apparently low risk.

Everyone I know who has this is asian or African American.

I think the racial disparity, particularly within the AA community, is mostly due to do with predisposition. 40% of the AA community has hypertension (unfortunately), which seems to be a significant risk factor.

My father in-law, who has hypertension, ended up in MGH ICU last year from influenza. Needless to say, he's treating Covid-19 with a great deal of seriousness. Fortunately, he retired Q4 of last year, so he won't experience any social or financially pressure to return to work - many in his situation won't be so lucky (I fear).

[Bridge781]

I know of plenty white people who have it.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

What do we think of the racial disparity that is emerging.

African Americans are 40% of people with corona virus. Whites are 28%. Asian 10 to 15%.

As a white woman with O blood type I am apparently low risk.

Everyone I know who has this is asian or African American.

Of the people I know who have it, all are either white or white-presenting Latinx. Of the people I know who have died, 2 were white, one Latino, and one black. You are not at lower risk because you're white, you're at lower risk because you have less likelihood of having spent your life in poverty or facing barriers to medical care with the comorbidities that go along with that.



Tangential, but related - when I was in college, I studied abroad in the UK to study medical systems and care, primarily. I was very interested in the NHS and wanted to understand why their medical system worked so much better for a broader cross section of people than ours does despite our "better" system. I learned almost as much as when I was diagnosed with cancer myself the next year! One of the things that sticks out to me the most about those studies was a case study on Nigerian immigrants. Nigerian immigrants are among our most "successful" immigrant groups academically and professionally. And yet despite these advantages, within 1 generation, Nigerian mothers have as poor of maternity outcomes as black native-born Americans. The discrimination within the medical system and stresses of institutional racism impact women that quickly, despite many of these women being incredibly successful.


Here in Boston with COVID-19, we're seeing that play out in many ways. Our predominantly black and brown communities (i.e. Eastie, Dorchester) are hit hard because of less historical health care, higher rate of other health issues (heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes) and more frequency working front line, essential jobs.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

One of the things that sticks out to me the most about those studies was a case study on Nigerian immigrants. Nigerian immigrants are among our most "successful" immigrant groups academically and professionally. And yet despite these advantages, within 1 generation, Nigerian mothers have as poor of maternity outcomes as black native-born Americans. The discrimination within the medical system and stresses of institutional racism impact women that quickly, despite many of these women being incredibly successful.

In the US or UK?

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by massnative71

In the US or UK?

US. The studies were used in part to show the difference between the UK and US, with the former having some racial disparity of care but nowhere near the immense difference in the US.

[Bettafish]

Here is a new article from the University of Cambridge.

The team used data from virus genomes sampled from across the world between 24 December 2019 and 4 March 2020. The research revealed three distinct “variants” of COVID-19, consisting of clusters of closely related lineages, which they label ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’.

Forster and colleagues found that the closest type of COVID-19 to the one discovered in bats – type ‘A’, the “original human virus genome” – was present in Wuhan, but surprisingly was not the city’s predominant virus type.

Mutated versions of ‘A’ were seen in Americans reported to have lived in Wuhan, and a large number of A-type viruses were found in patients from the US and Australia.

Wuhan’s major virus type, ‘B’, was prevalent in patients from across East Asia. However, the variant didn’t travel much beyond the region without further mutations – implying a "founder event" in Wuhan, or “resistance” against this type of COVID-19 outside East Asia, say researchers.

The ‘C’ variant is the major European type, found in early patients from France, Italy, Sweden and England. It is absent from the study’s Chinese mainland sample, but seen in Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.

The new analysis also suggests that one of the earliest introductions of the virus into Italy came via the first documented German infection on January 27, and that another early Italian infection route was related to a “Singapore cluster”.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/...ndemic-origins

[OutdoorLover]

This animated bar graph shows the progression of how Covid-19 deaths fit in among all leading causes of deaths in the US over time

https://public.flourish.studio/visua...W7ROZRW3UqlFx4