How racism-related stress makes young Black men more vulnerable to COVID Written by Danielle Chiriguayo and Amy Ta, produced by Angie Perrin
Jan. 14, 2021Coronavirus MORE “Black men already have the shortest life expectancy of any American demographic, and COVID is taking years from people. … We are in the middle of a pandemic almost a year out that is continuing to wreak havoc on these communities of color who are bearing this desperate brunt of what s happening,” says reporter Akilah Johnson. Illustration by Elliott Robbins, special to ProPublica.
African Americans are about one and a half times more likely than white people to contract COVID-19, nearly four times more likely to be hospitalized, and nearly three times more likely to die of the virus. That’s all according to the CDC.
The Rev. Dr. Kejuane Artez Bates was a big man with big responsibilities. The arrival of the novel coronavirus in Vidalia, Louisiana, was another burden on a body already breaking under the load. Bates was in his 10th year with the Vidalia Police Department, assigned as a resource officer to the upper elementary school. But with classrooms indefinitely closed, he was back on patrol duty and, like most people in those early days of the pandemic, unprotected by a mask. On Friday, March 20, he was coughing and his nose was bleeding. The next day, he couldn’t get out of bed.
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The Rev. Dr. Kejuane Artez Bates was a big man with big responsibilities. The arrival of the novel coronavirus in Vidalia, Louisiana, was another burden on a body already breaking under the load. Bates was in his 10th year with the Vidalia Police Department, assigned as a resource officer to the upper elementary school. But with classrooms indefinitely closed, he was back on patrol duty and, like most people in those early days of the pandemic, unprotected by a mask. On Friday, March 20, he was coughing and his nose was bleeding. The next day, he couldn’t get out of bed.