Dr. Nancy Krieger, Professor of Social Epidemiology, has been recently interviewed by David Goodman of Medium in “How Racism Kills”.
“The pre-existing health inequities that exist in this country exacerbates the likelihood of who will die,” says Dr. Krieger when asked about the social determinants of who dies from COVID-19. “As human beings, we can all be infected — the [corona]virus doesn’t care. But the likelihood of being infected is absolutely socially structured by histories and current realities of injustice in our society.”
“In terms of the exposure side, what matters is who is in jobs who has to go to work without sick pay, without paid leave, who are considered to be essential workers…[and] who are in public-facing jobs where they are still in close proximity to other people and where they’ve been required to go to work. Those are the people that are getting exposed now and are at high risk. These are predominantly lower-income people of color.”
