As president of a neighborhood association, Linda Ellis gets to meet a lot of people in her community and develop relationships.
During a time like this, though, that also means getting a front-row seat to the devastation caused by COVID-19.
Ellis is president of the Northwest Neighborhood Planning Development Corporation and knows of at least seven deaths in the 46208 zip code, which surrounds Crown Hill Cemetery and stretches as far north as 64th Street.
Nearly half of the residents are Black, and median income is about three-fifths of what it is in the rest of the state, according to census data.
“I feel that we’ve been neglected,” Ellis said. “… This virus is nothing new. It’s just uncovering the lack of resources and health care.”
African American residents in Marion County are almost twice as likely than whites to die from COVID-19, according to data released by the Marion County Public Health Department on April 20.
African Americans are also three times as likely as whites to have a confirmed case of COVID-19 and 2 1/2 times as likely to be hospitalized.
The county health department also released data about age and gender. It did not include raw numbers, only rates based on population size.
For example, 20 African Americans have died per 100,000 African American residents. That’s compared to 11 whites per 100,000 white residents.
Many in the medical community have pointed to preexisting health conditions — hypertension, asthma, heart disease, etc. — as a reason why African Americans are disproportionately harmed by COVID-19, but there’s more to it than that.
African Americans are more likely to have a job that doesn’t allow them to work from home, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
African Americans are also insured at a lower rate than whites, an issue made worse right now by a health care system in which more than half of Hoosiers get employer-sponsored coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Add in transportation, access to healthy food and any number of other issues, and African American communities across Indianapolis had good reason to expect a dreadful outcome.
“Obviously, people in poverty are gonna be the last to be tested,” said Teddrick Hardy, who has been helping Haughville residents afford groceries and medication during the pandemic. Hardy said he’s been lucky so far to not come across anyone whose life was in danger because of the virus.
Ellis said her biggest request right now is to get mobile testing sites in her area. Testing has expanded since the start of the pandemic, but it’s still limited.
Dr. Virginia Caine, director of the county health department, said in an interview medical racism is also a factor. She suggested providers receive ongoing training about the impact of social determinants such as where you live and what kind of economic opportunities you have.
The minimum wage hasn’t gone up in years, and those who do have health insurance might be on a plan they effectively can’t use because the deductible is so high. These are issues some providers don’t account for and then wonder why patients aren’t following their recommendations.
“They don’t live in that world,” Caine said. “They base a lot of their assumptions on what resources they have, not what their client may have.”
It’s not a problem with every provider and facility, Caine said, but it’s certainly prevalent enough to be an issue.
In Detroit, for example, an African American man died in his chair at home from complications with COVID-19 after three hospitals turned him away when he complained about breathing difficulties and requested a test.
Gina Fears, assistant director of recovery and community services at Public Advocates in Community re-Entry (PACE), said this is also an especially difficult time for those going through addiction recovery.
It’s difficult for staff at PACE and other organizations to maintain contact with people and make sure they have what they need because offices are closed for the most part, and many professionals, including Fears, have been working remotely.
Fears got a call recently about a man who was mugged overnight and had his money and medication stolen. He’s not sure if he can go back to where he was living.
What’s more, Fears said, the place the man is staying has had a high number of people who tested positive for the virus.
This is the kind of situation that adds even more stress to an already burdensome recovery process.
“When we think of people that are just in a daily crisis with addictions or mental health issues, then this is the kind of stuff that’s going on around them,” she said.
Gina Lewis Alexander is vice president of Hopeside Senior Communities, which offers housing for low-income seniors, and said it’s been troubling to watch the toll the coronavirus has had on the elderly residents, most of whom are African American.
One resident lost her daughter in Chicago to the virus and is “totally depressed,” Alexander said. She hardly comes out of her apartment and doesn’t answer the door.
“Anything that threatens life can be dramatic to the elderly,” said Alexander, who is also first vice president of One Voice Martindale Brightwood. “… It creates a whole life or culture of fear.”
The new data for Marion County is part of a nationwide trend showing COVID-19 is disproportionately harming African Americans.
In Marion County, African Americans are hospitalized at a rate of 106 per 100,000, compared to 43 per 100,000 for whites. The rate of confirmed cases for African Americans is 290 per 100,000, compared to 97 per 100,000 for whites.
Information about race was not available for 37% of confirmed cases and 17% of deaths included in the data. A release from the county health department said the missing data is not significant enough to reverse the disparity.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
