With the coronavirus disproportionately ravaging Black communities, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said they would be working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to give specific guidance to the nation’s Black communities, ABC News reported.
“We are actively working, as the vice president and the CDC director laid out today, data collection, targeted outreach to communities of color, and increasing financial employment, education, housing, social and health supports so that everybody has an equal chance to be healthy,” Adams said.
Pence and Adams made the announcement Friday after having a call with over 400 Black leaders from across the country, according to the report. It was the same day Adams came under fire for saying Black people should look out for “Big Mama” and “Pop Pop.”
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.
Adams and several other public health officials – including Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci – have reiterated that Black people are not genetically predisposed to contracting the disease at a higher rate because of biology.
Rather Black Americans suffer from higher rates of critical condition and death due to pre-existing health conditions like asthma, diabetes, etc. Black Americans have also suffered from inequitable health and socioeconomic conditions since America’s founding, all of which still have long-standing impacts today.
“Social distancing and teleworking we know are critical. And you’ve heard Dr. [Deborah] Birx and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci talk about how they prevent the spread of coronavirus, yet only one in five African Americans and one in six Hispanics has a job that lets them work at home. They are more likely to live in multi-[generational] housing that creates high-risk for the spread of a highly contagious disease like COVID-19,” Admas said. “We tell people to wash their hands. 30% of the homes of the Navajo nation don’t have running water, so how will they do that? People of color experience more likely exposure to COVID-19 and increased complications from it.”
The people who have buried their family members may think the Trump Administration’s ‘specific’ focus comes too little, too late.
