Draft#3 Summary & Reader Response "What we do and don't know about the links between air pollution and coronavirus"

In the article "What we do and don't know about the links between air pollution and coronavirus", Lewis (2020) shares that there are discussions on significant relations between air pollution and coronavirus deaths. However, it has neglected to consider other geographically-connected factors. Lewis explains that coronavirus started and has later spread in urban areas with air pollution exposure but there are other factors such as the "often use of mass transit systems, higher rates of poverty and deprivation, and proportionally larger ethnic minority populations". These factors increase the possibility of a person having a health condition that may make coronavirus more serious. The author also mentions "air pollution data is a victim of its own success". People are quick to link air pollution to coronavirus because its data is easy to access and correlate without inquiring about the histories of affected individuals. Lewis concluded that there is no reliable proof that air pollution does affect coronavirus.

While I agree with Lewis that air pollution has some correlation with coronavirus and there are other factors to be considered, the author fails to develop further on how ethnic affiliation and income level affect coronavirus mortality rate. The attributes of minorities in the lower-income community that play a part are their lifestyle, medical access, and underlying health conditions.

To begin with, minorities are a vulnerable group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national public health institute in the United States conducted a study on 10,000 patients who died from coronavirus ("Patients Most Likely to Die From COVID-19?", 2020). They reported that 34.9% of them were Hispanic descendants, 29.5% were non-white descendants but only 13.2% were white descendants. Minorities are among the poor and they are at higher risk of contracting coronavirus as they face a life lacking common necessity.

For lifestyle, Simon (2020) states that the poor have low-quality housing, they live in high densities area with limited space and bad air quality, heightening potential contact with other people. This implies that the virus can be easily spread among them. He also explained that the lower-income group is more likely to have “poor diets, get inadequate exercise and to be overweight”. Minorities do not have the luxury of working from home as they are part of the essential workforce (Ray,2020).  Unhealthy lifestyle and being over-exposed increases their risk of contracting coronavirus.

There are more death rates among low-income minorities as they live in neighbourhoods with inadequate medical access. In an article, Ray (2020) mentioned that minorities may find access to health care difficult due to “hospitals being farther away and pharmacies are subpar, leading to more days waiting for urgent prescriptions”. Other concerns are the lack of transportation, taking time off of work, communication barriers, and cultural differences between patients and providers (“Health Equity Considerations”, 2020).

Underlying health condition is a factor faced by low-income minorities. According to Bubola & Fisher (2020), people at the bottom end of society are around 10% more likely to have it. From the same article, there is recent evidence from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stating that these factors will make coronavirus “up to 10 times deadly”. An underlying health condition such as diabetes, respiratory or kidney disease is a long-term illness that weakens the immune system, it places these people at higher risk of contracting coronavirus and severe complications from coronavirus (Downey, 2020).

In conclusion, other than air pollution, low-income minorities face problems like medical access, lifestyle, and health conditions that increase the coronavirus mortality rate. Preventive measures should be placed to help reduce the spread of coronavirus.

 

Reference

Lewis, A. (2020, May 13). What we do and don't know about the links between air pollution and coronavirus. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/what-we-do-and-dont-know-about-the-links-between-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-137746

Which Patients Are Most Likely to Die From COVID-19? (2020, August 7). U.S. Pharmacist. https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/which-patients-are-most-likely-to-die-from-covid19

Ray, R. (2020, April 9). Why are Blacks dying at higher rates from COVID-19? Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/04/09/why-are-blacks-dying-at-higher-rates-from-covid-19/

Simon, D. (2020, April 23). Cities are at centre of coronavirus pandemic – understanding this can help build a sustainable, equal future. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/cities-are-at-centre-of-coronavirus-pandemic-understanding-this-can-help-build-a-sustainable-equal-future-136440

Bubola, E. & Fisher, M. (2020, March 15). As Coronavirus Deepens Inequality, Inequality Worsens Its Spread. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-inequality.html

Downey, A. (2020, March 25). COVID-19 coronavirus: what is an underlying health condition? Patient. https://patient.info/news-and-features/covid-19-coronavirus-what-is-an-underlying-health-condition

Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups (2020, July 24). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html