As Covid-19 has caused nearly a million deaths across the country, something this country hasn’t seen since the Spanish flu, it’s victimized certain segments of society more than others. The poorest counties in the U.S. is where the deadliest cases were found.
According to a study, A Poor People’s Pandemic Report: Mapping the Intersection of Poverty, Race and Covid-19, Americans who live in poor counties are dying at double the rate of Americans who live in wealthy counties.
And with surges of Covid variants, the numbers were even worse. Those in poor counties died from the Omicron variant at three times the rate of wealthy counties. And it was five times the rate when it came to the Delta variant.
The study delved into factors that led to these higher death rates in poor counties. In comparing wealthy and poor counties, the report showed a stark contrast in the level of health service provided.
William Barber II, a co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, was a key contributor to the report. He says that the findings “reveal neglect and sometimes intentional decisions to not focus on the poor” and that “there hasn’t been any systematic assessment of the impact of Covid-19 on the poor and low-income communities.”
The researchers assessed county-level data, such as Covid deaths, poverty, race, unemployment, and even police violence. However, researchers believe that the lack of the availability of racial data in these counties will cause a disproportionate amount of resources in places that need it most.
“What we can’t say in this report is who are the people who died,” said Alainna Lynch, senior research manager for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). “But what we can say is that in the poorest counties, the poorest counties grieved twice the number of deaths than the richest counties.”
In the research, data was collected from more than 3,200 U.S. counties. Among the 3,200 counties, the poorest 300 counties had the highest death rates. In those counties, 45% of the people were living below the poverty line, the annual medium income was $20,000, and the majority of its inhabitants were people of color.
“The neglect of poor and low-wealth people in this country during a pandemic is immoral, shocking, unjust, especially in light of the trillions of dollars that profit-driven entities received,” Barber said.
According to Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia, the report reflects the gap in social justice. “The burden of the disease – in terms of deaths, illness, and economic costs – was borne disproportionately by the poor, women, and people of color,” Sachs said. “The poor were America’s essential workers, on the frontlines, saving lives and also incurring disease and death.”
Members of the Poor People’s Campaign, along with clergymen and union leaders, gathered in Washington on June 18. In his opening remark, Barber didn’t hesitate in getting straight to the point. “The level of poverty and greed in this, the richest nation in the history of the world, constitutes a moral crisis and a fundamental failure of the policies of greed,” he said.
The Poor People’s Campaign dates back to the 1960s. The movement mainly strove for economic justice for the poor. It was organized by the Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christain Leadership Conference (SCLC).
The Campaign is now led by Barber with Rev. Liz Theoharis as the co-chair. The movement fights for immigration reform, labor rights, and housing equality, among many other issues. And with hundreds of thousands of Covid deaths throughout the poorest counties in the country, the Poor People’s Campaign has been at the forefront in poignantly addressing it.
