Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day thirty six
Speaker 1: since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story
Speaker 1: today the diseases assault on the black community. The number
Speaker 1: of dead and very sick from COVID nineteen show the
Speaker 1: outbreak has disproportionately affected Black Americans. But it's also dealing
Speaker 1: an economic blow to the demographic that will be difficult
Speaker 1: to recover from. But first, here's what happened today. More
Speaker 1: than five million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week,
Speaker 1: bringing the total to two million over the last month.
Speaker 1: It's the fourth week of astronomical levels of jobless claims.
Speaker 1: The level of unemployment is now so high it a
Speaker 1: effectively erases a decade's worth of job creation. The CEO
Speaker 1: of Airbus said I'm a call with investors that the
Speaker 1: global aerospace sector is facing its greatest challenge ever. Demand
Speaker 1: at the world's biggest planemaker has slumped, as airlines suffering
Speaker 1: without passengers ground planes, and slash orders for new ones.
Speaker 1: The numbers are just the latest in a string of
Speaker 1: signs the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on individual
Speaker 1: paychecks and businesses alike, and President Donald Trump is once
Speaker 1: more talking about reopening parts of the economy. The President
Speaker 1: told US governors on a conference call today that some
Speaker 1: states would be able to reopen businesses and schools before
Speaker 1: May one, when federal social distancing guidelines are set to expire.
Speaker 1: It's not clear that individual governors will follow guidelines set
Speaker 1: by the President, though Also today, New York Governor Andrew
Speaker 1: Cuomo extended the state's lockdown for two more weeks to May.
Speaker 1: And in Europe, some countries are cracking down even while
Speaker 1: others weig loosening restrictions on movement. The UK added three
Speaker 1: weeks to its restrictions as total infections exceeded one hundred thousand.
Speaker 1: There may be one small bright spot for Americans who
Speaker 1: have mourned the loss of live sports amid the outbreak.
Speaker 1: Golf is coming back to the US, but don't expect
Speaker 1: to hear that soft golf clap. The PGA announced Thursday
Speaker 1: that an altered schedule of events will resume with the
Speaker 1: Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, on June eighth,
Speaker 1: but it and other games will lack a live audience,
Speaker 1: and now for today's main story. Some cities and states
Speaker 1: have released data on actual health outcomes from the new coronavirus.
Speaker 1: Their reports are showing more and more that Black people
Speaker 1: are dying at disproportionate rates to their percentage of the population.
Speaker 1: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that
Speaker 1: Black people made up thirty three percent of all hospitalizations
Speaker 1: for COVID nineteen, the disease caused by the virus. That's
Speaker 1: more than double their share of the US population. In
Speaker 1: New York, the epicenter of the outbreak, a recent statistics
Speaker 1: showed Black people made up eighteen percent of deaths, but
Speaker 1: we're only nine percent of the population. Recently, McKinsey and
Speaker 1: Company released a report that shows it's not just Black
Speaker 1: Americans health that will suffer. The virus will likely have
Speaker 1: a devastating effect on their jobs and future earnings. I
Speaker 1: recently spoke with Bloomberg reporter Donald Moore about some of
Speaker 1: the social and economic factors that have led to higher
Speaker 1: case and mortality rates among black communities. So, Donald, you
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk to McKenzie and company about
Speaker 1: this topic. Now they've just issued a report about the
Speaker 1: impact of this virus on African American communities. What did
Speaker 1: they find? Di did a study of the entire us
Speaker 1: of areas that they call at risk that have lower
Speaker 1: access to healthcare, fewer hospital beds, and what they found
Speaker 1: was those areas tend to be predominantly African American. Off
Speaker 1: the bat, Black African Americans tend to have lower access
Speaker 1: to healthcare and tell us a bit more about these areas.
Speaker 1: Are there other factors that Mackenzie and others have pointed
Speaker 1: to as to why people in these communities have been
Speaker 1: affected more by coronavirus. A big reason it's structural. There's
Speaker 1: a term for what they call food deserts that refer
Speaker 1: to places that have limited or even no access to
Speaker 1: good quality fresh food. So for example, Detroit, for a
Speaker 1: while in the two thousands, there wasn't a single grocery
Speaker 1: chain in this any limits. So those areas tend to
Speaker 1: be overrepresented by Black Americans. Like usually large cities, um
Speaker 1: you know, underdeveloped areas when you don't have grocery stores
Speaker 1: or farmers markets to go to. What they end up
Speaker 1: doing is going to convenience stores or um fast food restaurants,
Speaker 1: which are high caloric foods, lots of sugar, lots of salt,
Speaker 1: you know, dunk food, and eating those foods tend to
Speaker 1: lead to things like obesity, which leads to things like
Speaker 1: hypertension and diabetes. And what about jobs in these communities
Speaker 1: do those also play a role? So there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of discussion over what we call central jobs, jobs
Speaker 1: that have to be formed even during the lockdown to
Speaker 1: keep society running, and Blacks tend to be overrepresented in
Speaker 1: those jobs. So, for instance, even though Blacks are underrepresented
Speaker 1: amongst physicians, they are overrepresented amongst nursing assistance thirty three
Speaker 1: percent of nursing assistants to African Americans, forty percent of
Speaker 1: orderly or African American, forty percent of psychiatricates or African American.
Speaker 1: So you have these positions African Americans take up a
Speaker 1: large share of where not only can they not socially
Speaker 1: distanced from other people, but the people they are interact
Speaker 1: with usually tend to be sick and in many cases
Speaker 1: have coronavirus. What was the earning gap between Black Americans
Speaker 1: and white Americans before all? This started before the pandemic.
Speaker 1: So the most recent numbers from the Economic Policy Institute,
Speaker 1: Media and Black wages were about seventy three point three
Speaker 1: percent of white wages in two thousand and eighteen, so
Speaker 1: roughly three quarters of what whites make. Black Americans tend
Speaker 1: to be overrepresenting the central jobs, but they're also overrepresenting
Speaker 1: jobs that are more likely to be laid off. So
Speaker 1: if you look at like the service industry for instance,
Speaker 1: or retail, those jobs are essentially being shut down because
Speaker 1: of the lockdowns in place all over the country, and
Speaker 1: Black Americans tend to be overrepresented in those positions, so
Speaker 1: they're going to be one of one of the first
Speaker 1: ones to be laid off. As a community, Can anything
Speaker 1: be done right now to curb consequences? Um, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: in terms of say hazard pay or or even just
Speaker 1: things like testing during the pandemic. Hazard paid definitely helps.
Speaker 1: Increasing essential worker salaries give them a boost, especially when
Speaker 1: there are a lot of African Americans who hold two jobs,
Speaker 1: so they might have a job at a grocery change,
Speaker 1: for instance, but then they'll lose the job as a waiter.
Speaker 1: So the hazard paid definitely helps in that regard. But
Speaker 1: from what I've seen, what I've heard talking to experts,
Speaker 1: the best way to help us is just increased testing.
Speaker 1: They said to make sure that workers are safe, even
Speaker 1: people who are laid off for safe or even the elderly.
Speaker 1: The best way is to find out who's infected and
Speaker 1: be able to isolate them so they don't inspect others.
Speaker 1: As Donald and his Bloomberg co author Jeff Green point out,
Speaker 1: predominantly black neighborhoods have been statistically less likely to get
Speaker 1: tested for coronavirus, but that soon may change. Admiral Brett,
Speaker 1: you are President Donald Trump's testings are said, the administration
Speaker 1: is actively discussing adding minority group to the priority list
Speaker 1: for testing. That was my discussion with Donald Moore, whose
Speaker 1: article co written with Jeff Green, on how the coronavirus
Speaker 1: is hurting Black Americans was published this week on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com. And that's it for the Prognosis Daily Edition.
Speaker 1: For more on the pandemic from our bureaus around the world,
Speaker 1: visit Bloomberg dot com, slash coronavirus and one Small favor.
Speaker 1: If you like what we're doing, please take a second
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Speaker 1: global reporting. The Prognosis Daily Edition is hosted by me
Speaker 1: Laura Carlson. The show was produced by me Tophor, forehead
Speaker 1: Jordan Gospore and Magnus Henrickson. Today's main story was reported
Speaker 1: by Donald Moore and Jeff green A digital music by
Speaker 1: Leo Sidrian. Our editors are Francesca Levi and Rick Shine.
Speaker 1: Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: h