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Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States

Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic, significant changes have occurred in the United States as the infection spread reached and passed its exponential phase. A stringent analysis of COVID-19 epidemiologic data requires time and would ge...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hamidian Jahromi, Alireza, Hamidianjahromi, Anahid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7294999/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32496205
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19934
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author Hamidian Jahromi, Alireza
Hamidianjahromi, Anahid
author_facet Hamidian Jahromi, Alireza
Hamidianjahromi, Anahid
author_sort Hamidian Jahromi, Alireza
collection PubMed
description Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic, significant changes have occurred in the United States as the infection spread reached and passed its exponential phase. A stringent analysis of COVID-19 epidemiologic data requires time and would generally be expected to happen with significant delay after the exponential phase of the disease is over and when the focus of the health care system is diverted away from crisis management. Although much has been said about high-risk groups and the vulnerability of the elderly and patients with underlying comorbidities, the impact of race on the susceptibility of ethnic minorities living in indigent communities has not been discussed in detail worldwide and specifically in the United States. There are currently some data on disparities between African American and Caucasian populations for COVID-19 infection and mortality. While health care authorities are reorganizing resources and infrastructure to provide care for symptomatic COVID-19 patients, they should not shy away from protecting the general public as a whole and specifically the most vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly, ethnic minorities, and people with underlying comorbidities.
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spelling pubmed-72949992020-06-23 Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States Hamidian Jahromi, Alireza Hamidianjahromi, Anahid J Med Internet Res Viewpoint Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic, significant changes have occurred in the United States as the infection spread reached and passed its exponential phase. A stringent analysis of COVID-19 epidemiologic data requires time and would generally be expected to happen with significant delay after the exponential phase of the disease is over and when the focus of the health care system is diverted away from crisis management. Although much has been said about high-risk groups and the vulnerability of the elderly and patients with underlying comorbidities, the impact of race on the susceptibility of ethnic minorities living in indigent communities has not been discussed in detail worldwide and specifically in the United States. There are currently some data on disparities between African American and Caucasian populations for COVID-19 infection and mortality. While health care authorities are reorganizing resources and infrastructure to provide care for symptomatic COVID-19 patients, they should not shy away from protecting the general public as a whole and specifically the most vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly, ethnic minorities, and people with underlying comorbidities. JMIR Publications 2020-06-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7294999/ /pubmed/32496205 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19934 Text en ©Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, Anahid Hamidianjahromi. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 12.06.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Viewpoint
Hamidian Jahromi, Alireza
Hamidianjahromi, Anahid
Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States
title Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States
title_full Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States
title_fullStr Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States
title_short Why African Americans Are a Potential Target for COVID-19 Infection in the United States
title_sort why african americans are a potential target for covid-19 infection in the united states
topic Viewpoint
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7294999/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32496205
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19934
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