The Place for Jersey City News
Log In / Register
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
Jersey City Times
  • News
  • Food and Fun
    • Food And Drink
    • Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    • Other Fun Stuff
  • Education
  • Business
  • Neighborhoods
    • Downtown
      • News
      • Guide
    • Heights
      • News
      • Guide
    • Journal Square
      • News
      • Guide
    • Bergen Lafayette
      • News
      • Guide
    • Greenville
      • News
      • Guide
    • Westside
      • News
      • Guide
  • Opinion
  • Columns
    • Eye Level
    • Mamarama
  • Obituaries
  • Event Calendar
  • Support our Mission
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
The Telling Numbers: How COVID-19 has Hit Black Residents in NJ

The Telling Numbers: How COVID-19 has Hit Black Residents in NJ

Jersey City Times Staff
February 14, 2021/0 Comments/in header, Latest News, News
by Jersey City Times Staff

Higher impact of the disease is associated with existing health factors as well as social factors

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Colleen O’Dea

More evidence of COVID-19’s disparate impact on New Jersey’s African Americans can be found in an analysis by state health officials and a study by Rutgers University professors.

The state Department of Health adjusted cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus for age and found the rate of infection among Black residents exceeded that of white residents, 4,181 per 100,000 compared with 3,332. African Americans were more than twice as likely as whites to be hospitalized from COVID-19 (810 per 100,000 versus 303) or to die from the disease (267 per 100,000 versus 120). Earlier this month, death data for 2020 showed COVID-19 was the number one killer of Blacks in New Jersey, with one of five African American deaths attributed to the disease and related conditions.

Health officials have noted the disparate impact the virus was having on Black and brown communities since early in the pandemic. The state’s COVID-19 information portal breaks out cases, hospitalizations and deaths by race. The state health commissioner typically relates some of this information during her briefings on the pandemic.

A recent study by a group of Rutgers University researchers published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities found that COVID-19 mortality racial disparities in the U.S. are associated with such social factors as income, education and internet access and highlights the need for public-health policies that address structural racism.

The researchers looked at the association between COVID-19 cases and deaths in 2,026 U.S. counties from January to October 2020 and social determinants of health that can raise the risk for infection and death. They also looked at factors known or thought to impact COVID-19 outcomes, including the counties’ population density and such health factors as obesity, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and high blood pressure.

Lack of internet is important indicator

The study found that a higher rate in a county’s percent of Black residents, uninsured adults, low birth-weight infants, adults without a high school diploma, incarceration rate and households without internet increased that county’s COVID-19 death rates during the period examined. Counties that were the most deprived socioeconomically had a 67% increase in the COVID-19 death rate. Michelle DallaPiazza, lead author of the study and an associate professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said the percent of households without internet — which provides updated knowledge of the pandemic and allows remote working and learning — and the percentage of adults without a high school diploma were the factors most associated with a county’s COVID-19 death rate.

“The findings are consistent with historical health inequities in marginalized populations, particularly Black Americans,” DallaPiazza said. “This adds to the extensive literature on racial health disparities that demonstrate that social and structural factors greatly influence health outcomes, and this is particularly true when it comes to COVID-19.”

Dr. Robert Johnson, dean of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and interim dean of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said it is well-known that certain factors influence the way diseases like COVID-19 impact African Americans and others and policymakers need to make greater efforts to change these.

“They’re adversely affected by poverty,” Johnson said. “They’re adversely affected by the environment they live in, adversely affected by poor nutrition. All these things need to be changed. Every time we have a severe chronic illness this is the outcome we get because the health disparities are real.”

 

Header: Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Jersey City, US
5:11 pm, July 5, 2022
78°F
moderate rain
Wind: 20 mph
Pressure: 1012 mb

Latest Articles

Christopher Columbus Drive Jersey City
July 04, 2022 /

Downtown Streets Gridlocked by Fireworks Traffic

327 Ege Ave Jersey City
July 04, 2022 /

Report: Fireworks Suspected in West Side House Fire

Forget the Whale
July 02, 2022 /

Rogue Waves July: Six Concert Picks in Jersey City

Raisa Nosova "Uprooted"
July 01, 2022 /

Muralist Raisa Nosova Raises a Distress call for Ukraine

Dickinson High School Jersey City 16x9
July 01, 2022 /

Former Dickinson High School Teacher Pleads Guilty to Sexual Assault

CONTACT US

    ADS/INFO

    For information on advertising opportunities, please contact - ads@jcitytimes.com

    For information on writing opportunities, please contact - info@jcitytimes.com

    Download our media kit here

    ABOUT US

    About Jersey City Times

    Contact Jersey City Times

    Social

    Archives

    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    Copyright © 2020 JCityTimes.com. All Rights Reserved - powered by Enfold WordPress Theme
    City and County Struggle with Vaccine Distribution Crime Scene Tape Man Seriously Injured in Hit and Run
    Scroll to top