Tim Scott asks Trump administration to warn minority communities of coronavirus risks
UPDATED: Since publication, S.C. health officials have released statewide demographic data on the people who have died from the coronavirus in South Carolina. The article has been updated to reflect that change.
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott is calling on the federal government to help spread the word to communities of color that they are at a higher risk for contracting the novel coronavirus.
The South Carolina Republican told The State on Wednesday he has personally discussed with Trump administration officials the need for better outreach to these communities.
“We should use the biggest microphones we have to share this information,” Scott said. “Frankly, the administration has the biggest microphone.”
Until this point, federal guidance has specifically singled out senior citizens, and individuals with compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions, as being especially vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Scott has been discussing whether African Americans and Latinos should also be getting specific instructions about the risks within their communities, given they tend to have asthma and hypertension at higher rates.
On a recent call between Republican U.S. senators and Anthony Fauci — the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has become a face of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response effort — Scott said he asked whether he should be encouraging minorities to take extra precautions.
“I asked (Fauci), since African Americans have a higher percentage of folks with high blood blood pressure, should we be wearing masks more often or not? Should I be more aggressive in encouraging social distancing protocols?” Scott, who is black, recalled. “Dr. Fauci said, ‘Absolutely, you should.’ ”
Scott also said he spoke directly to administrative officials close to the federal coronavirus task force.
“They echoed the same concerns about what they are starting to see and some of the data the fact that African Americans and Hispanics were seeing an uptick in the infection and death,” he said.
Scott hopes the administration plays a more active role both in spreading the word to these communities and in collecting the kind of data necessary to make a compelling argument that the trends are real — which could then in turn make the case for more targeted resources to help these communities.
Late Tuesday, he sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar asking that the agency work to address the “patchwork of demographic data that will inevitably hinder our ability to comprehensively analyze or assess disparities in order to aid in our response efforts.
“The federal government … has a unique and useful role to play in spearheading or otherwise facilitating the collection of both granular and aggregate information on infections, hospitalizations, severe illness, and fatalities,” Scott continued.
Right now, in the absence of a national database on racial disparities in coronavirus morbidity, only a handful of states are collecting and releasing data about who is dying from COVID-19. On Wednesday afternoon, South Carolina joined the ranks of these states, with the S.C. Department of Health and Environment Control announcing that 46% of the state’s residents who have died from the virus so far are black.
African Americans make up 27% of the state’s entire population, and South Carolina also tends to rate the among the highest in the country for cases of hypertension and other underlying health causes that increase vulnerability to contracting the virus, like diabetes.
Earlier in the day Wednesday, Scott said he thought it would be “prudent” for DHEC to compile and disseminate this data.
“You can save more lives from the greater clarity of information,” Scott said. “I hope we have the ability to aggregate the information based on the most vulnerable populations, whether that’s age or racial groups.”
But Scott said he was not calling for the release of this data because he agrees with advocates and Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus, who are arguing that racial disparities in access to quality healthcare could be causing minority communities to suffer disproportionately during the global pandemic.
“I would say there are, no doubt, a lot of contribution factors.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
