In the wake of the COVID 19 epidemic, American faces unseen threats as it has disrupted everything that is social life, economic aspects, and above all, human health. So far, there have been massive interruptions of people's livelihood, where we have seen the closure of schools, restaurants, churches, and other public social amenities in the effort of the virus containment. The public health has dramatically advocated for social distancing measures to beat the spread of infection, which soaring by the day as the death toll climb steadily across the United States. Even though the Corona Virus is not discriminatory, it has impactful consequences that vary across the social groups giving rise to the unequal outcome and social inequality in the manner it affects individuals in society. The African Americans are amongst the race that COVID 19 have hit hard having many causalities and more infected persons across America. For instance, considering that African Americans only represent about a third of the city's population, Chicago has registered more than half of the confirmed cases with over 70 percent death toll (Brooks, 2020). COVID 19 social disparity amongst the blacks can be linked to income, social structure, and unequal access to care and healthcare quality. Both structural and individualistic theories will be used to explain social inequities and health disparities experienced by African Americans during the pandemic and the response of a social institution in combatting COVID-19.
COVID-19 has affected the African American disproportionately basing social structure, income inequality, and institutionalized racism ( Backer, 2020) . Also, black Americans become more susceptible to the spread of infections attributable to the close-knit nature of their society, which makes the community spread fast. With the number of infected persons rising to over a million people, the African Americans have not been exempted from the COVID-19 nightmare. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from its study of a couple of states, the blacks registered higher hospitalization rates compared to their white counterparts (CDC, 2020) . In line with CDC, the risk factor of the novel Coronavirus increases with individuals with an underlying medical condition and also old age due to the diminishing immunity to fight the infections (CDC, 2020). Numerous contributory factors are prevalent in blacks exacerbating the health outcomes increasing the coronavirus severity. The health disparity among this group is also brought by both social and economic factors. Correspondingly, the black community showed uneven and unusual trends based on the racial statistics national-wide, which indicates a third of the infections points to the blacks, and yet they have America's population representation of only 13 percent (Nania, 2020) . Equally, the blacks' mortality rate across the nation form nearly a third of the death toll cases with slight recoveries. Likewise, the stay-at-home policies in the black community are a tough decision since they live on a little income, which may not allow it (Brooks, 2020). Picture that barber, waiter, warehouse worker, food truck cleaners, or delivery persons who depend solely on that low income to put food on the table or pay rent. It would be challenging for them to stay indoors as they would have to go without necessities. As per the statistics presented by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that under 20% of the African American workers can work remotely (Nania, 2020). Black workers are less likely to conform to the stay-at-home rule, thus working from home is only made for a few people who have stable jobs. A more considerable fraction of the black workers are more likely to have lowly paying direct consumer handling jobs, limiting their ability to work at home.
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A structural theoretical framework, the Critical Race Theory, posit racism as a socially constructed notion ( Dillon, 2020) . The racial inequities surface from the socio-political and economic disparities which the whites generate amongst ethnic groups in the effort of maintaining the privileged white status. Meager and inequitable living states are, all together, the outcomes of profound structural issues that collectively shape how the society is constructed. Racism generally makes a community marginalized, and this can apply to all other dimensions of life. Poverty, which is more prevalent in the black population, is a great contributor to the spread of infections since sparse economic arrangements result in people living in crowded houses, the use of public transportation, and difficulties in working remotely. With the differential in the living standards, the black may find it impractical when it comes to social distancing as many individuals share the household; thus, the structural issues impose a profound risk of contracting Coronavirus and other infectious diseases.
Further, the black race is still struggling with health disparities issues; for instance, uninsured individuals their status prevents them from seeking medical attention when the disease is in its earlier stages. In short, the black community lacks the social determinant of health, which is supposed to keep people healthy. Conversely, the strength of the Critical race theory is that it provides a social scientific approach to help understand the regimens of racial disparities and facilitates the assessments of inequality to develop a better strategy and solutions to these societal problems. On the other end, ist shortcoming manifests in the ways that it solely attributes to group racism as a health determinant, forgetting racial consciousness can be conceptualized at the individual level affecting their perception of receiving medical attention.
The i ndividualistic theories tend to fault people's health choices, such as the consumption of unhealthy foods, drinking alcohol, and smoking habits ( Dillon, 2020) . The Symbolic Interactionism works with the perspective that health and sickness are a product of social construct. The health deviant behaviours are associated which how the society responds to illness and how it views of individual responsibility of the patient. With the COVID-19 affecting people with hypertension, diabetes, cancer, which are also associated with life choices, Symbolic Interactionism theory is unsympathetic to these individuals as it faults them for such actions. The deviant behaviours, in this case, are diagnosed as ailments of personalized nature. The strength of the theory is that it establishes the individual's responsibility for fueling the infection owing to their behaviour determining their health outcome. Inversely, the argument is flawed as it does not explain the contributory factors to these deviant behaviours, which demotes individuals' wellbeing to immediately criticizing people of their health choices.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a social and health institution is increasingly putting forth efforts to decrease the spread of COVID-19 disease among racial and ethnic minorities. Given COVID-19 has no cure, the CDC and other health organizations have invested in educating the public on preventive measures (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The CDC has laid many guidelines for the healthcare organization, healthcare practitioner, and individuals to follow. With the efforts of serving large numbers of the minority groups, the CDC prompts the healthcare providers to implement the CDC guidelines standardized protocol as well as quality care initiatives. In conjunction with the community organization, the CDC trains community health workers in underserved minority populations to enlighten and connect persons to open or cheaply available services.
Additionally, CDC help combat COVID-9 by continuously updating reliable information for the minorities to avoid misinformation and unconfirmed report. For individuals exposed to COVID-19, the CDC also has helplines to connect people to medical care centers for emergencies and people experiencing symptoms. Further, the CDC advises healthcare professionals to collaborate with other organizations dealing with minorities. The transport, housing, faith-based institutions that closely linked to minorities help to disseminate information freely as well as adopt strategies that focus on socio-economic problems in the effort of slowing down the COVID-19 infection rates measures (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The CDC also is gathering data and statistics according to racial and ethnic groups to monitor COVID 19 progression and ways in which the resources are allocated as well as enhancing patient management.
References
Backer, A. (2020). Why COVID-19 May Be Disproportionately Killing African Americans: Black Overrepresentation among COVID-19 Mortality Increases with Lower Irradiance, Where Ethnicity Is More Predictive of COVID-19 Infection and Mortality Than Median Income. Where Ethnicity Is More Predictive of COVID-19 Infection and Mortality Than Median Income (April 8, 2020) .
Brooks Rodney A, (2020). African Americans struggle with a disproportionate COVID death toll. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/04/coronavirus-disproportionately-impacts-african-americans/
CDC (2020, April 17). Hospitalization Rates and Characteristics of Patients Hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 — COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1–30, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html
Dillon, M. (2020). Introduction to sociological theory: Theorists, Concepts, and their Applicability to the Twenty-first Century . John Wiley & Sons.
Nania, R. (2020). Blacks, Hispanics Hit Harder by the Coronavirus, Early U.S. Data Show. Retrieved from https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2020/minority-communities-covid-19.html
