And then work on the socioeconomic issues that are facing minorities and low income households in our country who are among the largest death population of Covid.
This is something that is going to really require some serious research when this is all over -- and research by actual scientists, not by advocates for any point of view.
There are a lot of anecdotal things we can point to which support the possibility these neighborhoods are more harshly affected -- Detroit, Washington, DC being two examples. And as a retired cop/EMT who has worked extensively in low-income minority communities, I can see some reasons why there could be higher incidence rates there due to comorbidities, low income, and multi-generational households.
But when I look at my own city, which I know very well and where I can see
infection levels by zip code, I just don't see what I expected to see.
What I see here is much higher infection in
lower middle-class working neighborhoods -- most of which are heavily Hispanic here in Miami. To give just one example, Hialeah (almost 100% Hispanic working class city) has an infection rate
three times that of Opa Locka (a heavily African-American low-income area) which is immediately adjacent to Hialeah.
Like the low-income areas, I can see reasons why the infection rates would be higher in Hispanic working class neighborhoods, especially multi-generational households. But even if they don't live together, the bonds are so tight you just can't keep these families apart. Family gatherings are one of the cores of their culture -- they're a daily and weekly occurrence, not just birthdays and holidays.
The other high area I see is Little Haiti, which has an infection rate almost exactly double that of traditional African-American communities immediately adjacent to it. Again, there are some unique things about Little Haiti which would contribute to higher infection rates.
Infection rates in the classic ghetto areas are among our lowest, not highest.
Needless to say, the millennial areas and the very wealthy areas are the lowest.
But that's just me looking at Miami, which is probably not a typical American city.
When this is over, we need some serious unbiased study into whether, and which, socioeconomic factors actually do play as much of a role as we think. And then figure out
why, of course, and try to come up with some solutions for whatever problems we uncover.