WEST PALM BEACH — The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has ravaged Palm Beach County, as well as the state and rest of the country, in so many ways. The businesses closed, and jobs gone. The school campuses vacated. And of course, the lives lost.
And, as always it seems, this health crisis is being unevenly felt in Black and brown communities. From a lack of access to overall healthcare to a potentially lifesaving vaccine to treatment for those who are infected.
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COVID panel discussion: Reducing COVID risks in Black community has special challenges
For these very real reasons, the National Pan Hellenic Council of Palm Beach County and Hey Girl, Hey Sorority Coalition sponsored a virtual panel discussion Thursday evening featuring some of the county’s top newsmakers during the pandemic: Dr. Alina M. Alonso, director of the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County; Verdenia C. Baker, county administrator; and longtime county School Board member Dr. Debra L. Robinson.
![WEST PALM BEACH -- Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, continues urging residents use facial coverings and social distancing to help protect themselves from the COVID-19 virus despite the COVID vaccine. [GREG LOVETT/palmbeachpost.com]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/02/25/NPPP/822b9721-c9be-4677-be77-8d6854e9b4c1-032020_Coronavirus_Presser.JPG?width=660&height=441&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
All three have been at the forefront of the county’s COVID for the past year. Dealing with everything from enforcing a controversial mask ordinance to balancing the safety of kids returning to schools to getting the long-awaited vaccine to residents’ arms. All are challenges that have been particularly acute when it comes to Black and brown communities.
Not to mention the unhealthy level of distrust Blacks have when it comes to the healthcare system. One that many public and mental health experts despite the frustration it engenders, hasten to admit is well-deserved.
Black people in Florida have been particularly devastated by this disease, with infection rates running twice as high as whites’. Their death rate much larger too: 98 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to whites’ 60 per 100,000.
Hispanics, too, are suffering from the coronavirus in intolerable numbers. Hispanic and Latino people are experiencing 5,333 known infections per 100,000 people. That’s almost three times the rate for whites (1,907 cases per 100,000). Hispanics are dying at a rate of 84 fatalities per 100,000 persons in this pandemic – a death rate 28% higher than the white rate.
And it’s no secret that healthcare and health outcomes for poor people of color are far worse than they are for Americans on the whole. Blacks and Hispanics of limited means are less likely to have health insurance. In poor neighborhoods, fresh food can be hard to find, leading to diets larded with salt, sugar and fats. People more frequently dwell in crowded housing, making it easier for a contagious disease to spread.
Also, it’s common for poorer people to hold jobs that can’t be done remotely: landscaping, housekeeping, construction, cooking, waitressing, picking crops, caregiving. It’s no accident that the first hot spots in Palm Beach County flared up in poorer neighborhoods in Belle Glade and Lake Worth Beach. Flared up there, but didn’t stay there: workers in those occupations, by definition, make their living throughout the larger community.
Recognizing this, Thursday’s panel sought to provide answers to questions to a myriad of questions that go to the heart getting Black and brown communities consistent access to the COVID vaccine and treatment.
