This video story was produced and reported by Ta’Bria Snowden.
The coronavirus has killed more than 250,000 Americans this year, and an overwhelmingly disproportionate number of those struggling to survive are people of color.
According to a new CDC report, Black Americans are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 compared with white people.
And almost all of the children and teens who have died from COVID-19 were Hispanic or Black.
Those who survive are living with devastating impacts both physically and financially. Doctors refer to them as long-haulers.
Robert Alaniz contracted the virus earlier this year and is one of the long-haulers.
“They said about 30% of my lung capacity is all I have available right now to me,” he said.
Before he got COVID-19, Alaniz says that he thought media coverage of the coronavirus was overblown, but after the summer he had with the virus, he wants everyone to know the effects.
“At my worst, the only thing I could do was breathe. I couldn’t move in bed,” Alaniz added.
Many survivors report months of coughing, tightness in their chest and shortness of breath. Dr. Jonathan Shepherd said surviving COVID-19 can be so much worse than people realize.
“There are reports of myocarditis, which is an infection of the muscle around the heart,” he said.
While COVID-19 has affected the lives of many, people of color have been disproportionately affected for several reasons. Systemic racism directly creates massive health disparities.
Pre-existing health conditions more common among black people may be partly to blame, but lack of access to health care could be the biggest problem.
People of color are also less likely to have health insurance and primary care physicians, wealth inequality is largely to blame.
Just last year, the average white family had eight times the wealth of a typical black family.
Black Americans are also at greater risk of getting infected because many rely on public transportation to get to their jobs that cannot be done remotely.
