How to spread in the black community

(TNS)-Londoc was cautious. He bought supplies to survive the pandemic. He wore a mask and gloves when he needed to go out. But he rarely left home.

Until May, the number of cases in Florida remained low, so Dock thought he might have gone through it. But the 70-year-old veteran began to feel a headache and then tired.

Overnight, his sense of smell disappeared. Perplexed and surprised, he tried shaking ammonia under his nose, but could not detect anything.

Finally, he started coughing.

In the first week of June, the Dock was coronavirus positive. His condition was mild, but he quarantined alone in his room for four weeks.

“I had a panic attack every day,” Dock said. “I had the vision of dying alone in a hospital without a wife, on a ventilator.”

The dock is one of approximately 3,000 black residents in Pinellas County who test positive for coronavirus.

State data show that black residents are 2.5 times more likely to be infected with coronaviruses than white residents in Pinellas.

This is one of the largest disparities in Florida. Of the 12 counties with over half a million people, only Duval has a similar gap.

The infection is concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods south of St. Petersburg, where most of the city’s black dwellers live.

The community is one of the most affected in the state.

“We are worried that this could be the epicenter of the United States right now,” said Jabaar Edmond, Pinellas-based organizer at Florida Forall. “Drill down to make Florida the epicenter. St. Pete Island is one of the epicenters of Florida.”

It is not clear why the virus spread so quickly among black residents of Pinellas. However, experts and community leaders like Edmund do their job of exposing black dwellers to viruses, the dense homes that spread the infection, and the history of systemic neglect and failure that left black dwellers in existing homes. I’m pointing out. A condition that makes the infection more dangerous.

Experts say that these factors, and the history of segregation of most of the black residents of Pinellas in close proximity, could easily spread the virus to a larger community.

“COVID took a community that was already injured and suffering and kicked them off while they were down,” Edmond said. “We shouldn’t have taken a genius to see COVID hurt us.”

By the time reports of cases creeping up in Florida, the coronavirus had already swept the black community of Pinellas County.

The prevalence of infection in the black population soared in early June and has remained high since then. At worst, the infection rate of black residents reached 55 infections per 100,000 daily. The percentage of white residents will never reach half that number.

Today, black residents make up 11% of Pinellas County’s population, but with known races, make up more than 23% of infectious diseases and more than 22% of hospitalizations.

This is an important note about your data. More than one-third of Florida infections are unknown. In Pinellas County, race is unknown in 24% of cases. However, the race is known for almost all hospitalizations and deaths.

The majority of deaths at Pinellas were white residents over the age of 65. However, 11 of the 36 residents under the age of 65 who died of COVID-19 were black, three times as many as white residents. population.

In total, 2.7% of black residents of Pinellas tested positive for coronavirus. It has the highest infection rate of the 12 largest counties in Florida. And the infection rate is 2.5 times that of white residents.

In recent weeks, the number of new cases seems to be stable for black residents. On average over the past week, this number has dropped to 34 per 100,000 people per day.

Although white residents are also less prevalent, the gap between the two groups is narrowing because they are less prevalent than black residents. Last week, on average, 17 out of 100,000 Caucasian residents were infected daily.

In other parts of the state, the gap is increasing. Last week, the number of new cases of black residents explodes in smaller counties in the Tampa Bay region, such as Sarasota and Citrus, where black residents are 2.7 times more likely to be infected.

In Hillsborough County, the gap between black and white residents remains low, but black residents are 60% more likely to be infected than white residents.

The Redlining heritage has made Pinella one of the most isolated counties in the state, according to the University of Wisconsin County Health Rankings. Fifty percent of the black population is concentrated in four zip codes at the southern end of St. Petersburg.

These postal codes (33701, 33705, 33712, and 33711) make up only 9% of the county’s population, but contain 18% of infections.

If a significant proportion of the population in a small area is infected with a highly contagious virus, people can be easily exposed despite best efforts to stay safe.

Two weeks after the dock tested positive, Marilyn Bell began to feel sick. A retired 65-year-old school teacher developed symptoms with familiar patterns of headache, fever, loss of odor, and cough.

Bell believes she caught the virus at a city recreation center where she volunteered for a children’s program. She has taken all possible precautions, but suspects her sick colleague may have infected her.

At one point, I thought that her cough would be worse and her chest would be depressed. She went to the hospital and spent two days there. “I was miserable and the most ill I’ve ever had,” Bell said.

Bell has mostly recovered, but she still has occasional dyspnea. She has had four coronavirus tests, but they continue to return to positives. After more than 6 weeks, she remains quarantined alone at home.

Experts and community organizers point out several factors that may have exacerbated the spread of coronaviruses among black residents.

“Workplaces can be a major source of exposure, especially when looking at the workforce and its occupations in southern St. Petersburg,” said Nikki Capehart, City Director of St. Petersburg. ..

Census data show that almost half of Pinellas’ black workers are employed in the health, education, or service industries. The CDC points out that workers are likely to be exposed to the virus. These jobs are particularly dangerous in a pandemic because of their close contact with the public or other workers, the inability to work from home and the lack of paid sick days.

“That’s the only major part of the exposure,” said Cape Heart. “When I had a lot of people who couldn’t necessarily stay at home because they were an integral part of the service industry working in the Black community in southern St. Petersburg.”

Ebony Haugabook, who works as shift manager for a local fast food chain, said contact with colleagues was the number one cause of her anxiety.

“You have people coming to work, they have files in their voices, they are coughing and sneezing, and they have their masks along the way,” Haugabook said. It was “When you ask if they are sick, they are like this: “No, I always sound like this,” and because they can’t miss a job. “

David Brahoff, a professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Nursing, said the virus could spread to families when they are infected with work, especially in homes with multiple generations.

In Pinellas, census data show that 47% of black families live in apartments, while only 34% are white residents. Nationwide, black families are twice as likely to live in homes of three or more generations, according to an analysis by the Institute for Economic Policy.

“In our community, many of us can’t afford rent,” said Maria Scruggs, head of the St. Petersburg branch of NAACP. “What you have found is informal, but many households are doubling or doubling the number of people who live there. Also, if you have 3 or 4 generations in the same house, You will never be closer to your family.”

Vlahov said that exposure to coronaviruses does not necessarily lead to infections. However, the virus can easily overwhelm the immune system weakened by existing health problems.

Data from the Florida Department of Health show that black populations in Pinellas are at significantly higher risk of heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes when population age is adjusted. All of these can be fatal in connection with COVID-19 infection.

“Investigate AIDS, hepatitis, asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cholesterol that are currently affecting the St. Pete Southside community,” Edmond said. “I don’t want to minimize the severity of COVID-19, but I want to emphasize the severity of these seven or eight medical conditions that make black people more susceptible to COVID.”

City officials say they are paying attention to the community. Early on, two temporary pop-up test sites were set up in Childs Park and Bartlett Park, in the heart of the worst affected communities. “But we didn’t see a lot of votes,” said Amber Bolding, emergency manager for St. Petersburg.

But she admitted, “Because there weren’t many tests done in the early days, people didn’t know their status, so it was spreading at home, at work, and at playgrounds.”

Some community leaders complained to the inhabitants that they did not pay attention to medical advice until it was too late.

“Until it starts hitting home for people-until I actually contracted it or knew someone who lost their lives-I don’t know what people were convinced of.” Jason Bryant, a co-founder of 100+ black men, said a community group working to spread a positive image to black residents of St. Petersburg.

According to community leaders and experts, the skepticism is rooted in the history of race-based medical fraud.

One often cited example is the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. In 1932, the US Department of Public Health infected 399 black men, allowing researchers to monitor the course of the disease if left untreated.

A study by Harvard economist Marcella Arsant found that the demand for medical services among black men declined significantly, resulting in a reduction in life expectancy 10 years after the experiments were revealed by reporters in 1972. I found that.

The skepticism predicted by Arsant’s work is evident in St. Petersburg.

“It’s a lack of education, but it’s also the historical trauma of Tuskegee history and the experiments we have done,” said Antonio Brown, another co-founder of 100 plus black men.

“People here don’t really trust the tests and vaccines,” continued Brown. “The medical community has failed our community. That’s why they aren’t taking precautions.”

NAACP’s Scruggs said COVID-19 is the latest in a long history of events that disproportionately harmed St. Petersburg black residents.

“You have data over time to look at income gaps, health outcomes, and economic outcomes,” Scruggs said. “These are all well documented, which is why COVID-19 is prevalent in my zip code.”

This story is part of a collaboration with the front line of the PBS series through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Local Journalism Initiative funded by Public Broadcasting Corporation.

© 2020 the Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida)

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