now does the recent lifting of covid restrictions make you
worried or happy? Well, a recent poll found
big racial disparities when it comes to that very question
. It found that over 60% of black americans in
almost 70% of hispanic americans say they are worried about
getting infected by covid 19 While just 45% with white
Americans aren't I was worried joining me. Now is
dr chris Pernell, chief strategic Integration and health equity
officer for University hospital and chris. The poll was
conducted last week, right before a federal judge struck
down president biden's national mask mandate on public transportation.
So what does its findings tell you about how the
pandemic is perceived by different groups of americans. Hi
Ken, thanks for having me. I'm not surprised
by the pole at all. Oftentimes our beliefs,
our perceptions are informed by our lived experiences and we
know that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted black and
brown lives. We can look at the data that
the CDC is tracking which has been updated through the
month of april. And it shows that black and
hispanic persons have 2.5 times, almost times more likely
to be hospitalized because of coronavirus and about two times
more likely to die than white americans from coronavirus.
Because of that lived experience, you more likely are
going to be concerned about contracting the infection. We
also see that our vaccination rates are not necessarily as
wide of a difference as they used to be.
But in the booster completion rate. We do we
still see that gulf. So for instance, that
disparity has reversed among white and hispanic americans and it's
narrowed significantly between black and white americans. But around
the booster dose that that gap is just as white
as it has been at the beginning and interim stages
of the pandemic. So is it finding that black
people are getting less boosters than white people right now
? Yes. And how we look at the data
is we look in the past two weeks to see
who are the most um persons who are getting vaccinated
. There is an additional push to ensure that vaccines
and boosters included are reaching those hard hit communities and
those black and brown communities again are those communities that
were disproportionately impacted. So while you may see an
uptick and a representative increase in the share of those
being boosted in the last two weeks. If you
look at the total number, the total number of
those eligible, that's where you see that disparity according
to the CDC data. Now we're seeing mask mandates
go away. We're seeing some code restrictions being lifted
. Dr Fauci said we are out of the pandemic
phase. So what do you think is driving this
worry Even today driving this worry today is that black
and brown person still know people who are getting sick
from coronavirus. We here at university hospital we serve
a black and brown majority city of North New Jersey
in the greater New york. New Jersey area is
a very diverse area. And so we still see
patients no more than a handful to about 10 who
are hospitalized with coronavirus, but that doesn't account for
the level of active infection that is still in community
. Are we at the point where we were two
years ago when we were the epicenter of this pandemic
? No, and I'm I'm thankful and grateful for
that. I lost my father nearly two years ago
when we were at that point, so we're still
seeing people get infected and because of the toll of
the disproportionate impact. Um, we have concerns among
the black and brown community about whether or not they
have an increased risk of exposure because of where they
work because of the use of public transportation, because
they live in homes that they may not be able
to safely quarantine and or isolate in and because they
have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus
more severe in those persons chris parnell, dr chris
Pernell, chief Strategic Integration and Health Equity Officer for
University Hospital has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you
so much for sharing your wisdom with this with us
on this important topic.