Dan Oliveira 9/22/22 Galea’s Argument What is Galea’s argument for discrepancies in infection rates and death due to COVID19 between Black and white Americans? Throughout the video, Galea explains why the black American population struggled with Covid-19 more than the white American population. In his segment, he uses chart after chart to prove his point that blacks struggled more. The main point Galea always reverts to is that blacks are paid significantly less than whites and tend to be in a lower income bracket. He started the video by laying the basis for his argument, saying how blacks had a higher death rate than whites. He played off this by mentioning how other groups like Hispanics experienced more difficulty than whites as well. Breaking it up by income quartiles showed that covid was experienced extremely unevenly. Without the proper money to live healthy lives outside of covid, it made it increasingly difficult during the pandemic. The chart of the human body, where it was split up forty percent, ten percent, thirty percent, and twenty percent, showed how health should be maintained. Yet, in the other chart of the human body, almost ninety percent of the chart was medicine. If blacks were in higher income quartiles, they would have the money needed to eat healthier, work out more and maintain their health. These poor living conditions tended to result in more problems for low-income Americans as they had more mental illnesses and underlying diseases that made them vulnerable to covid. Black Americans were found to have a higher prevalence of high blood pressure and diabetes which were two underlying diseases that made Covid much worse. Galea furthered his argument by showing how past recessions have been much different. Typically, the contrasting income groups all recover at an equal rate, but during the covid crisis, high-wage employment recovered much faster than low-wage employment. High-wage employment was also less affected as “the higher the income quartile, the more likely you are to be able to work from home (Galea 22:45).” With their access to the internet and better living conditions, they could complete their office jobs from home without much of a difference. Nonetheless, these low-income workers were working to support themselves and their families in the middle of the pandemic. More work led to more exposure to covid, which resulted in high covid cases in low-income groups like black Americans. All in all, black Americans were faced with more hardships than white Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to most black Americans being considered in the bottom fifty percent of earners in America, they were forced to stay at work and live unhealthily. Not having the money to afford healthy food or not having the time to work out made them more susceptible to underlying health issues which hurt them during Covid. All these factors led to black Americans having higher infection and death rates than white Americans during the pandemic. “The Contagion next Time: Priorities for Health in a Post-COVID-19 World.” Www.youtube.com, 21 Nov. 2021, youtu.be/u7LhMwvR6KA. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.
