New data showing COVID-19 is hitting black Georgians far harder than others is sparking an outcry among state leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some politicians and activists are calling for bold reforms at the federal and state levels to redress long-standing inequities that continue to lead to disparate outcomes for people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to go a lot further,\u201d Rep. Hank Johnson told the Recorder<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The calls come as a video of the killing <\/a>of an unarmed black man\u00a0went viral<\/a>, flaring racial tensions in the state and across the nation. The video showed the February shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old who was jogging in the suburban Glynn County neighborhood. He was confronted at the time by two white men with guns in a pickup truck, who were later\u00a0charged<\/a>\u00a0with his murder soon after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took on the case last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n African Americans comprise about one-third<\/a> of Georgia\u2019s population but make up more than four-fifths of hospital patients with COVID-19, according to a study<\/a> released at the end of April by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of 305 patients surveyed in eight Georgia hospitals, 247 \u2014 more than 80 percent \u2014 were black, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Georgia and other states, black Americans are dying<\/a> from COVID-19 in disproportionate numbers, according to APM Research Lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen white people get a cold, black people get COVID-19,\u201d said Nathaniel Smith, founder of the Partnership for Southern Equity in Atlanta<\/a> \u2014 tweaking the adage that black people catch pneumonia when white people catch a cold. \u201cWe have to change that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He and others pointed blame at historic and structural inequities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not because we are more susceptible to the coronavirus that we are being hospitalized and dying,\u201d Johnson said at a Congressional Progressive Caucus hearing<\/a> this month on racial disparities amid the pandemic. \u201cIt\u2019s because of the legacy of pervasive, systematic and systemic racism that is grounded in the soil of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n State Sen. Nikema Williams, chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, agreed. \u201cThis didn\u2019t just start with the coronavirus,\u201d she said on a press call. \u201cIt has only put a spotlight on what has always existed in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black people are more likely<\/a> to have underlying health conditions, and less access to care. And the health care system is biased against them, Johnson said, citing studies that show African Americans are less likely to receive prescription pain medicine than white people and are \u201cspoken to\u201d rather than \u201clistened to\u201d by providers. He also noted mistrust of the system in the black community due to past abuses, which impedes access to care and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black people face other forms of structural inequity that put them at high risk. They are more likely to live in poverty<\/a> than whites or Latinos, according to the Center for American Progress. And they have higher unemployment rates, fewer job opportunities, lower pay and greater job instability as a result of discrimination and racism, the center reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018A lot to do\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n