Black Americans are suffering disproportionately from COVID-19 compared to white Americans. A new study, published Feb. 9 in Social Science & Medicine, suggests that if reparations for Black Americans had been made before the COVID-19 pandemic, the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the overall population could have been reduced by 31 to 68 percent. (Related: The Biden administration backs studying reparations.)
Duke professor William A. Darity is a co-author of the study, along with researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice.
“We demonstrate that had a program of reparations for Black American descendants of U.S. slavery been enacted prior to the pandemic — had the nation already closed the racial wealth gap — infection rates and mortality would have been dramatically lower not only for Black Americans but for all Americans,” Darity says.
Darity is available to comment further through Twitter: @sandydarity.
The Study is available at the following links:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621000733
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113741