Across the U.S., African Americans are dying of the coronavirus at disproportionately high rates. 

Experts say this is for a number of reasons — especially documented health disparities. But misinformation and distrust of the healthcare system by Black America is also at play.

When actor Idris Elba announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 he went online to dispel a rumor that Black people could not contract the virus. 

“Black people, please, please, please understand that coronavirus, you can get it,” Elba said. “There are so many stupid, ridiculous conspiracy theories about Black people not being able to get it. That’s dumb, stupid. All right? That is the quickest way to get more Black people killed.”

In fact, nationwide Black people are dying at higher rates than others from the virus. In Chicago and New York, Black residents have contracted the virus at much higher rates.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted African Americans to a greater extent than more advantaged groups. “This is because as a group, African Americans in the U.S. have higher rates of poverty, housing and food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, and chronic medical conditions, and disabilities,” said Dr. Lisa Cooper, an internist and social epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a U.S. News & World Report.

Health conditions such as asthma, obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease are issues African Americans face at higher rates. These conditions could make COVID-19 more damaging, say health experts.

Working conditions are another reason why more African Americans are being affected by the coronavirus. Since many Black Americans work at hourly, low-wage jobs, “fear of lost wages or loss of employment may lead African Americans and other vulnerable Americans to try to work when they are ill, contributing to further spread of the disease within their communities,” Cooper said.

Add to all of this the distrust that many in Black America have of the healthcare system in the U.S. This distrust is rooted deep in the history of Black people’s relationship with the U.S. medical industry. Take, for example, the horrors of the Tuskegee Experiment, which took place over the course of 40 years. The Department of Health and Human Services allowed syphilis to go untreated in hundreds of unsuspecting African-American men in experiments to monitor the disease’s progression.

“When the pandemic first started, there were a lot of rumblings around, like this being a hoax. I’ve heard stories about people believing that you know, Black people were immune to coronavirus,” said Jahmil Lacey, a researcher on health disparities, in an interview with NPR‘s Morning Edition.

He added: “I think in order to understand the depth of distrust Black people have towards health care institutions, having an awareness of the long history of medical experimentation on Black people is important.”

Because of the distrust, some Black people may ignore the advice of public health professionals who recommend social distancing and self-quarantining, “worsening the impact of the epidemic on our community,” Cooper said.

Few Black doctors doesn’t help encourage Black people to turn to help from the medical community.

“It’s not unusual for myths and misinformation to be associated with a health crisis, particularly a pandemic, particularly one that didn’t start here,” Cooper said. And “it’s not unusual for these myths to take on racial overtones,” especially with a new virus that can be unpredictable.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.

Not only are Black people at a higher risk, but their treatment is often inferior to the treatment white counterparts receive.

Dr. Ebony Hilton, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia, agrees. In the U.S., “there are great discrepancies in not only the diagnosis but the treatment that African Americans and other minorities are afforded,” Dr. Hilton told Buzzfeed News. “So I want to make sure that in this pandemic, that Black and brown people are treated in the same way and that these tests are made available in the same pattern as for white people.”