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As a senior member of the Congress and the House Committee on Homeland Security, I write to share several actions which must be taken immediately to protect African Americans and communities of color, groups that are disproportionately impacted by the deadly threat of COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus.

Public health officials should be straight with African Americans who comprise approximately 13.4% of the United States population and have significant health disparities that are noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as presenting significant risks if they are stricken with the COVID-19 infection, including asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and pulmonary illness.

On April 2, 2020, the Detroit News reported that at least 40% of deaths attributable to the novel coronavirus virus in Michigan have been African American, a percentage that far exceeds the proportion of African Americans in the state or the Detroit metropolitan region. In the state of Michigan only 14% of the population is African American.

As the nation continues to reel from the rising number of deaths and the sobering reality that COVID-19 is well into community transmission in every state, we must move, and move expeditiously, to take the actions needed to treat African American who would will arrive at hospitals with complex comorbidities that require coordinated care to give them a fair chance of survival. African American lives are placed at greater risk because of a healthcare system that denies access to the poor and work conditions that have long neglected conditions that leave them with a higher incidence of diseases that for far too long have gone under-diagnosis and untreated.

There are many reasons for this, but they include the refusal of several states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the resistance of small business employers to provide healthcare to workers until required by their state government to do so and too little access to medical doctors who are trained to provide care to this COVID-19 at risk population.

To date, 38 states have accepted the Medicaid Expansion provision of the ACA. It is past time that the remaining states join them in providing lifesaving healthcare to the nation’s poorest citizens, including the states with large African American populations like my home state of Texas, and Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri.

Social Distance is an Imperative for African Americans

The deaths attributable to coronavirus reported by every state should also include demographic data to help to inform federal, state and local public health officials, and non-governmental organizations, and enable them to assess the scope of the threat to every demographic group they serve. Demographic data also can be utilized to hone the most effective messages to be directed at communities at greatest risk to the coronavirus.

For example, it is imperative than all messages to the African American community emphasize that coronavirus is a lethal threat requiring adherence to recommended safety measures, such as frequent hand washing, social distancing and not touching one’s face. The traditional means of communicating to Black residents include mainstream media, but to a greater extent Black print and electronic media, the Black church, barbershops and beauty shops, and other information transmission opinion setting outlets.

Next, all employers large and small must understand the coronavirus threat to African Americans is much higher than other demographic racial groups and is matched only by persons over the age of 70. This means that employees suffering from respiratory conditions, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart illness — living in households where a family member has any of these conditions — should be made aware of the provisions of the CARES Act passed by Congress that provides for their income during this trying time.

The CARES Act provides funding so that employees receive paid medical leave and are eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits with an additional payment of $600 a week until July 31, 2020, by which time the coronavirus curve may be flattened and a vaccine in development. These benefits should be extended to employees with a person in their household who has one or more of these medical conditions that places the ill at greatest risk.

Flattening the coronavirus transmission curve is not just about saving the public health care system, it is also about saving innocent lives, families and communities from a dangerous threat that can kill. A large percentage of African American workers hold jobs such laborers and in-person service providers that simply cannot be done at home or through remote telecomputing. But these workers are the glue that holds the economy together and makes it work. Cooks, maintenance workers, drivers and sales clerks are our wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cuisines, our neighbors, co-workers, classmates and friends.

State employment agencies must consider attestations from physicians, Federally Certified Health Centers and public health offices regarding the medical condition of persons eligible to apply for unemployment based upon real and present health concerns regarding COVID-19.

It is not enough to know the total number of cases and deaths resulting from COVID-19. We also need to know the demographics of those who are being hospitalized as well as those who are dying from the virus. Having such information can help ensure the most effective messages and deliver them in the most effective manner to all persons — not just those with higher educational levels or more experience in foreign travel, or who have access to high quality and affordable healthcare.

All persons in the United States must know they must adjust to the new norm of social distancing, hand washing and disinfecting general surroundings. It is a matter of life and death, particularly for African Americans.

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Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee is a Democrat from Texas’s 18th Congressional District. She is a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary and Homeland Security.

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Writing since February 2022 · 1 story contributed