Brookings February 18, 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a disproportionately devastating impact on Black and Latino communities—both from an economic and a health perspective. Last year, Black and Latino individuals experienced 2.9 and 3-year declines in life expectancy respectively, largely due to Covid-19 deaths. That is roughly 2.5 times the decline for white individuals.
As the Omicron variant continues to spread and we wait for this most recent wave to break, it is crucial that we not only recognize the racial differences in Covid-19 cases and deaths thus far but also begin to understand the underlying mechanisms that give rise to these disparities. In a recent report written with Andre Perry and Carl Romer, we explore the causes of Covid-19 racial disparities using...