• This deadly pandemic has no boundaries, but its impact on the Black community reflects deeply-rooted inequality. Stark disparities have long existed in health care, such as lack of access to hospitals, insurance, and affordable health care. African Americans are more likely to be uninsured and live in communities with inadequate health care facilities. These are compounded by environmental, economic, and political factors.
• The United States has more confirmed COVID-19 cases than any other country. There are over 1 million cases. More than 70,000 Americans have died. The numbers continue to rise each day.
• As the incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths rises, we see shocking numbers that the Black community is experiencing the worst outcomes. In almost every location reporting data, African Americans are harmed-both in infections and fatalities-in higher percentages.
• African Americans hold more of the low paying jobs in the service industry, including grocery store workers and bus drivers, where they are exposed first and more often. Fewer than 20% of Black workers are able to work from home compared with 1/3 of white counterparts.
• We cannot allow our people to fall into debt or destroy their financial futures as a result of this man-made pandemic. Housing and student-debt remain massive expenses facing most Americans, that far exceeds the slow growth of wages.
• Before any state can re-open, the nation requires aggressive testing and contract-tracing operations in place so that new cases can be isolated and treated. We are nowhere near that. Federal guidelines advise states to show a sustained decrease in COVID-19 cases over a 14-day period before easing restrictions. That hasn’t happened anywhere.
