This browser does not support the Video element.
CDC study claims Black and Hispanic children at greater risk of COVID-19
Joyce Evans has the details
PHILADELPHIA - Are Black and Hispanic children more severely impacted by coronavirus than white children? A new study from the CDC says yes, from hospitalizations, to virus-related complications, there are disparities.
It puts a small face on a big problem that millions of poor American families have been suffering since way before COVID-19. It’s further proof why one local doctor has been fighting so hard all the time.
“I am not surprised at all,” Doctor Ala Stanford said.
In fact, Dr. Stanford, pediatric surgeon and Founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, says it was just a matter of time that the numbers of Black and Hispanic children hospitalized with COVID-19 would mirror numbers being seen in adults of the same ethnic groups.
She says it comes down to racial healthcare disparities that are by no means new to Black, brown and poor communities.
She compared treatment children receive at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia versus St. Christopher’s.
“When you go to the hospital, where the personnel are overworked, the resources are not as great, not as new, your outcomes will be poorer and that has been seen not just in Philadelphia, but across the country,” Dr. Stanford explained.
The CDC study looked at only 14 states.
Dr. Stanford takes issue with claims the high numbers are the result of just genetics.
“Are some of the children obese? Yes. Do some have asthma? Absolutely. But, it goes back to the same social and economic inequities when you have food deserts,” Dr. Stanford commented.
She says this is yet another clear warning that it would be irresponsible, in her words, to send any children, particularly these children, back into a classroom setting.
“First, no child is immune. Some have better outcomes, but it is not the Latinas, it is not the Black children who are having better outcomes,” Dr. Stanford added.
___
For the latest local news, sports and weather, download the FOX 29 News app.
DOWNLOAD: FOX 29 NEWS APP