Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, Black people in North Carolina have been disproportionately affected. There are some hypotheses, according to a story from local radio station WFAE 90.7: in Mecklenburg County, for example, African Americans are three times more likely to have chronic diseases, according to Gibbie Harris, the Mecklenburg County Health Director. And according to Dr. Ophelia Garmon-Brown, a medical executive from the region, African Americans have less access to health care and lower rates of insurance coverage. Also, African Americans are often essential workers who couldn’t stop commuting during the height of the pandemic.
The story I refer to here was published in April; now, according to data from the CDRT, Black people in the state represent 29% of all of the Covid-19 deaths in the state, even though Black people account for only 21% of the population in North Carolina. The numbers of cases and hospitalizations have been growing in the state. In fact, North Carolina reported its highest single-day increase in Covid-19 cases this week.
According to Carolina Demography (https://www.ncdemography.org/2018/02/08/nc-in-focus-black-population-in-north-carolina-2016/), in 2016 there were 2.2 million Black or African American people in North Carolina. There were six counties in North Carolina with a Black population of 100,000 people or more. The county with the biggest Black population in the state was Mecklenburg County, with 344,627 people. It’s the county with the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in North Carolina: 38,295 cases and 417 deaths, according to the Department of Health.
I’m getting in touch with both Carolina Demography and the Department of Health to gather more demographic data about the county: what is the average age of the population? Average income? Do they have data on how many hospitals/testing facilities there are in the county? I need all of that to write my story.
I’m also planning on interviewing the Mecklenburg County Health Director and the medical executive that the local radio interviewed for their story. I’m trying to find the contact of a community leader and a family that was affected by Covid. I know there is a very traditional Black college there, the Johnson C. Smith University, and I believe that could be a great starting point to get in touch with the community and with specialists that could give me a better understanding of what is happening in the county.