Throughout the pandemic, there’s been an emphasis placed on how seniors are more vulnerable than the rest of the population. But a new report shows that many more Black and Latino Texans are actually dying from COVID-19 in the prime of their lives, when compared to working-age whites.
New statistics gathered by The Dallas Morning News show COVID-19 is killing more than four times as many working-age Latinos and more than twice as many working-age Black people in Texas, as compared to whites in the same age group..
Anna Kuchment reported the story for The Dallas Morning News, where she covers science. She told Texas Standard that the newspaper, working with a demographer at the University of Texas-San Antonio, calculated the number of life years lost to COVID-19 among working-age Texans. The study defined working age as between 25 and 64. Kuchment said Latino Texans have lost 241.446 life years to COVID-19 – more than twice as many life years as white Texans.
Kuchment said that while more older people of all ethnicities die of COVID than young people, the number of younger people who die is greater among Blacks and Latinos.
Reasons for the disparity include lower rates of health insurance among Latino and Black Texans, and earlier onset of health conditions that complicate recovery from COVID among those populations.
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.
