Lessons (Not) Learned: Chicago Death Inequities during the 1918 Influenza and COVID-19 Pandemics.

ABSTRACT: During historical and contemporary crises in the U.S., Blacks and other marginalized groups experience an increased risk for adverse health, social, and economic outcomes. These outcomes are driven by structural factors, such as poverty, racial residential segregation, and racial discrimination. These factors affect communities' exposure to risk and ability to recover from disasters, such as pandemics. This study examines whether areas where descendants of enslaved Africans and other Blacks lived in Chicago were vulnerable to excess death during the 1918 influenza pandemic and whether these disparities persisted in the same areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine disparities, demographic data and influenza and pneumonia deaths were digitized from historic weekly paper maps from the

SUBMITTER: Mendenhall R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10094019 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature