Study confirms that the pandemic affected more blacks, Hispanics and indigenous people

(Trends Wide) — A study published Monday confirms that the pandemic affected black, Native American and Latino Americans far more than whites from the start, killing a greater proportion of these groups.

People in these groups were more likely to die from any cause, Covid-19 and others, than whites and Asians, the team led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) noted.

“It is estimated that between March and December 2020 there were 2.88 million deaths. Compared to the number of deaths expected from 2019 data, there were 477,200 extra deaths during this period, with 74% attributed to covid-19, “they wrote in their report, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“The excess of age-standardized deaths per 100,000 people among Black, American Indian / Alaska Native (AI / AN), and Latino men and women was more than double that of white and Asian men and women. The excess deaths Non-COVID-19 related also disproportionately affected Blacks, American Indians / Alaska Natives, and Latinos, “they added.

“Compared to white men and women, the excess non-covid-19 related deaths per 100,000 people was 2 to 4 times higher in black, AI / AN, and Latino men and women, including deaths related to diabetes, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (stroke) and Alzheimer’s disease. ” The excess deaths in 2020 resulted in a substantial widening of racial / ethnic disparities in all-cause mortality from 2019 to 2020. “

The team used data from death certificates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and population estimates from the Census Bureau to compare excess deaths. by race, ethnicity, sex, age group and cause of death from March to December 2020 with data from the same months of 2019.

“Focusing only on deaths from covid-19 without examining the total excess of deaths, that is, both deaths due to causes not related to covid-19, and those that do, may underestimate the true impact of the pandemic,” Meredith Shiels, a principal investigator for Infections and Immunoepidemiology at NCI, who led the study, said in a statement.

“These data reveal the profound impact of lifelong inequalities.”

When they analyzed the excess deaths not caused by COVID-19, the team found that the excess deaths per population was three to four times higher among black men and women and American Indian / Alaska Natives, compared to men. and white women. Latinos had an excess of deaths not caused by covid-19 almost twice that of whites.

“It is possible that fear of seeking health care during the pandemic or misattribution of causes of death from COVID-19 is responsible for the majority of excess deaths not related to the disease,” Shiels said.

“The United States has recorded profound racial / ethnic disparities in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths since the beginning of the pandemic,” the team wrote.

“The steady progress of the past 20 years in narrowing the mortality gap between black and white people has been rapidly wiped out by the covid-19 pandemic and is likely to worsen as the full effect of the pandemic takes hold. evident”.