The Disproportional Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s lives all over the world. Its effects include loss of lives, unemployment, school closures, business closures, and city lockdowns (Kassa, 2020). Accordingly, people have turned to alternative learning methods and employment through online classes for students and working remotely from home. Individuals who cannot work from home must expose themselves to the virus to make ends meet. Minorities, being the majority of people trying to make ends meet, increase their chances of infection. Consequently, the majority of the minorities end up infected with the virus. Without access to healthcare, minorities do not readily obtain healthcare services such as testing. Additionally, in the unawareness of their infection, they continue infecting more minorities. These infections lead to the death of many and the hospitalization of others. Also, African Americans’ position in their society affects their predisposition to infection. Therefore, the effects of COVID-19 are felt differently based on an individual’s social standing and healthcare system availability.
Opening paragraph
People’s position in society affects their exposure to COVID-19. Subsequently, students and prominent people are minimally exposed to COVID-19 when they attend online classes and work from home. Healthcare workers are the most exposed to COVID-19 as they test and treat already ailing patients. Public workers such as policemen are also exposed to infection as they work to maintain peace and order. Apart from their social standing, other social aspects that increase the chances of exposure include racial discrimination, poverty, homelessness, and residential segregation (Reyes, 2020). Accordingly, racial discrimination concerning healthcare has risen regarding the priority of COVID-19 control; poverty also affects the infection rate due to low wages and homelessness or jailing. Finally, residential segregation affects the severity of the effects of COVID-19 on African Americans. However, minorities are affected by COVID-19 the most because the healthcare system is biased against them. The unequal healthcare system and lack of a balanced cost and benefit in the healthcare system favor increasing numbers of African Americans infected with COVID-19. The cost to obtain healthcare services is costly, while the benefits and services provided are minimal.
Supporting Paragraph
The first social aspect that affects the severity of the impacts of COVID-19 is racial discrimination. The inequality has influenced racial discrimination against African Americans in the healthcare system (Reyes, 2020). The use of non-extensive data that did not account for the total infections and death rates among African Americans represents this discrimination. Additionally, the legitimate data exposure would ensure that drastic methods of control would have been put in place to control and regulate the high numbers of infections and deaths among African Americans. The second social aspect that affects the impacts of COVID-19 is poverty. Poverty is established through the payment of minimum wages and homelessness. Accordingly, with minimum wages, minorities avoid acquiring medical assistance, even in times of COVID-19, and some also lack insurance coverage, causing them to continue being underemployed when they are ill. This situation promotes the spread of COVID-19, increasing infections. Another factor is residential segregation, whereby most African Americans live in environments that are not conducive to inhabitation. These residential areas lead to the development of diseases that leave African Americans predisposed to being infected with COVID-19. Also, the lack of clean water and proper sanitation inhibits the fight against COVID-19 because hand washing and wearing a mask is the best method of fighting COVID-19. Preexisting health conditions also affect the impact of COVID-19 on an individual. Diseases such as asthma affect the severity of the effects of COVID-19. Individuals with preexisting conditions will probably get hospitalized after infection because the disease will be aggressively acting in their bodies, and most will pass away.
Closing Paragraph
Social aspects are the most significant contributor to the increase in COVID-19 cases among African Americans. Consequently, some guidelines have been developed to eliminate healthcare inequality. These guidelines include availability, accessibility, acceptability, quality healthcare, and human health rights (Reyes, 2020). The first guideline is availability. With testing kits and medication availability, the infection rate would decrease as more people become aware of their test results. The easy accessibility of healthcare centers would ensure that African Americans could seek the medical assistance they needed when they got COVID-19 symptoms. Also, the acceptability of social limits such as discrimination would ensure that people remain aware of the bias taking place and stand up against it. Providing cost-effective quality health care will ensure that even the poor can access medical services when infected with COVID-19. Furthermore, some responses can be applied to ensure human rights are observed when attending to African Americans during the COVID-19 response. They include respecting them, ensuring material support, ensuring a balanced cost-benefit healthcare system, developing and implementing policies, and using extensive data analysis to evaluate COVID-19 impacts. Accordingly, respecting individuals allows for implementing policies and relaying justice without reference to discrimination. This response counteracts social aspects that influence the impacts of COVID-19. The second response is ensuring material support by balancing the cost and benefit of the healthcare system to ensure the best medical services are available to all at an affordable price. The third response involves developing and implementing policies that will ensure that all people’s health is accounted for regardless of race or economic standing (Reyes, 2020). The final response is using extensive and practical data analysis methods and measures that represent the severity of cases to raise awareness among the public. Subsequently, people adhere to measures set in place when they see the severity of their situation concerning COVID-19.
Personal Reflection
The information passed through the essay represents most people’s reality for African Americans and other minorities who are not given the attention they deserve from the severity of the impacts of COVID-19 on them and their livelihoods. Racial discrimination should not be a debating factor when it comes to healthcare. Healthcare is a life-or-death situation; therefore, people lose their lives because of negligence. Consequently, it is wise to ensure that the policies and responses put forward in the essay are implemented to see a decrease in COVID-19 cases. As individuals, we should strive to make the world a better place by respecting others and ensuring that justice applies to all. The development of a balanced cost and benefits healthcare system will also ensure that everyone can access medical assistance whenever they need it. This system will ensure that new cases are discovered easily and transmission of the virus can be monitored.
Conclusion
The impacts of COVID-19 have been severe on minorities such as African Americans. Moreover, the contributing factors have a healthcare and social basis. These contributing factors must be eradicated and replaced with better policies and actions to overcome the severe impacts of COVID-19 on African Americans, which will decrease the number of people infected with COVID-19.
References
Kassa, W. (2020). COVID-19 and Trade in Africa: Impacts and Policy Response. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3619230
Reyes, M. (2020). The Disproportional Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans. PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved 27 March 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7762908/.
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Question 
Home Work Assignment Week 5
Find attached the following documents relevant to Week Five
The Disproportional Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans
- Lesson for week 5
- Student Essay
- Six-Paragraph Essay Summary using APA Format
Home Work Assignment Week 5
Refer to the attached student essay titled: “The Disproportional Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans.” Do a six-paragraph summary of the essay under the following headings-(1)1ntroduction, (2)0pening Paragraph,(3)Supporting Paragraph,(4)Closing Paragraph,(5) Personal Reflection on the essay,and (6)Conclusion .Make sure you use APA style referencing.This link will be useful.
APA 7 Format Page:
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