HOW MUCH HIGHER IS THE COVID DEATH TOLL FOR MINORITY AMERICANS COMPARED TO WHITE AMERICANS?

COVID-19 deaths have devastated racial minorities in the US. 

A person of color in the US is up to 65 percent more likely to die of coronavirus compared to a white person, recent data from American Public Media (APM) show. 

Indigenous Americans have now surpassed black Americans for suffering the highest death toll per capita of any race. 

As of December 8 2020, 133 out of every 100,000 Indigenous Americans had died of COVID-19. 

Black Americans have suffered nearly as many deaths per capita with about 127 out of every 100,000 dying of the infection. 

In other words, a staggering one in every 800 black Americans have died of COVID-19. 

By December 8, more than 86 out of every 100,000 LatinX people had been killed by the virus, as had some 90 Pacific Islanders per capita (although health departments largely failed to collect data on this group, leaving many holes in the data on their outcomes). 

Only Asian Americans face lower COVID-19 death rates, with about 51 out of every 100,000 dying of the infection. 

Minority Americans face a fatal storm of multiple risk factors for COVID-19. They are more likely to have to work outside their homes, meaning exposure after exposure to the virus, which scientists believe can lead to more severe infection.

They face higher rates of underlying health conditions like heart disease and diabetes, which in turn raise risks for COVID-19 complications. 

And higher rates of poverty and poor access to health care mean minority Americans are more likely to have a disease that's already progressed and avoid going to the hospital if they get sick, fearing devastating financial costs.  

Fatality rates are much lower among white Americans - although still astonishing. 

One in every 1,235 white people in the US has died of COVID-19, according to the APM figures. 

But the astronomical death rates among black, LatinX and indigenous Americans have pushed the average frequency of US deaths well above the figure for white people alone.  

A total of one in every 930 Americans of any race have been killed by COVID-19 in less than a year.  

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