“‘Mardell Reed has high blood pressure, anemia, arthritis and thyroid and kidney disease. The 80-year-old says she no longer goes outside because of COVID-19, except under rare occasions. “I’m just afraid of being around people,’ she says.”

by Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News

“Old. Chronically ill. Black.

“People who fit this description are more likely to die from Covid-19 than any other group in the country.

“They are perishing quietly, out of sight, in homes and apartment buildings, senior housing complexes, nursing homes and hospitals, disproportionately poor, frail and ill, after enduring a lifetime of racism and its attendant adverse health effects.

“Yet, older Black Americans have received little attention as protesters proclaim that Black Lives Matter and experts churn out studies about the coronavirus.

“’People are talking about the race disparity in Covid deaths, they’re talking about the age disparity, but they’re not talking about how race and age disparities interact: They’re not talking about older Black adults,’ said Robert Joseph Taylor, director of the Program for Research on Black Americans at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.”

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