Political Gumbo: Melanin is Not a Vaccine

Covering the local outbreak of the Coronavirus has been hard, especially in the past week.

The Pasadena numbers increased from 15 last Sunday to 58 by the end of the week, and sadly the health department reported two deaths.

I knew at some point we would have to report local deaths. Still it’s difficult. We’re all at risk if people don’t listen.

The county now has 5,277 cases, and 117 deaths, including 28 on Saturday in Los Angeles County.

Those are the hometown numbers.

As of Sunday morning there have been more than 320,000 cases in the U.S. and there will be 10,000 deaths by the time this is published Monday morning.

Worldwide, about 1.25 million people have been infected and almost 70,000 people have died.

But what makes it harder is even with those stark numbers that rise daily, I still see posts on social media exclaiming Black people cannot catch the Coronavirus.

The truth is the Coronavirus could decimate the Black population.

According to most health officials, people with underlying conditions have a higher risk of catching the virus than healthy people.

Deaths from heart disease are higher in black Americans than in white Americans and other ethnic groups, and heart disease develops at a younger age in African Americans.

Nearly 48 percent of African American women and 44 percent of African American men have some form of heart disease according to the Heart Foundation.

That includes me, at one point I had an artery that was 90 percent clogged.

African Americans are also more likely to develop high blood pressure and diabetes.

According to investigative news site ProPublica, as of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81 percent of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26 percent black. Milwaukee is one of the few places in the county that is tracking the racial breakdown of people who have been infected by the virus.

In Michigan, where the state’s population is 14 percent black, African Americans made up 35 percent of cases and 40 percent of deaths as of Friday morning.

Detroit, where a majority of residents are black, has emerged as a hot spot with a high death toll has not reported deaths by racial breakdown. Neither has New Orleans where 40 percent of the state’s deaths have happened in black-majority Orleans Parish.

In late February, the National Brotherhood of Skiers — the largest African-American ski and snowboard association in the world — met for their annual Black Summit in Idaho since that event ended on March 6, 120 of the 700 people that attended, 120 have reported symptoms associated with the virus. At least 20 people have tested positive, eight people were hospitalized and three people were placed in intensive care.

Pasadena resident Nathaniel Jackson died and Los Angeles resident Charles Jackson died.

Don’t be stupid, being Black — or African American if that’s how you identify — does not put a yellow and red S on your chest.

Social distance from each other, but don’t distance yourself from the facts and the truth.

Stop being ignorant, Black is not a vaccine.