美國版塊
Lexington
列克星敦
Black America in peril
美國黑人危在旦夕
The vulnerability of African-Americans to the coronavirus is a national emergency
非裔美國人易感冠狀病毒是全國性的緊急情況。
"THE MOST difficult social problem in the matter of Negro health", wrote the sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois in 1899, was to understand why so few white Americans were bothered by it. The poor black lives Du Bois described in his pioneering study, "The Philadelphia Negro", were spent "in the most unhealthy parts of the city and in the worst houses", with minimal medical attention.They tended to be sickly and short.Yet he could think of "few other cases in the history of civilised peoples where human suffering has been viewed with such peculiar indifference."
社會學家杜波依斯在1899年寫道“針對黑人的健康問題，其最困難的社會問題在于理解為什么幾乎沒有白人受到這樣的困擾。”杜波依斯在他具有先驅性的研究“費城黑人”中描述過黑人的貧困生活，他們生活在“城市中最不健康的地方和最糟糕的房子里”，幾乎沒有得到過醫療照顧。他們往往體弱多病且身材矮小。然而，他可以想到“在文明民族的歷史上，幾乎沒有出現過其它的案例，即人們能夠對人類的苦難如此的漠不關心。”
Modern medicine has since transformed the life expectancy of all Americans. But many of the disparities Du Bois observed remain.African-Americans are still the country's poorest, pooresthoused and unhealthiest large group, with high incidences of asthma, diabetes, hypertension, cancer and obesity. In 1899 infant mortality was almost twice as high among blacks as among whites; now it is 2.2 times higher. If anything, African-American diets are unhealthier now than the rations of milk, bread and fried pork Du Bois described. So-called "food deserts" are a modern phenomenon.The 160,000 people who live in the District of Columbia's two poorest and overwhelmingly black wards, 7 and 8, east of the polluted Anacostia river, have only three supermarkets. They also have the sparsest health care in the city, with no major hospital.
現代醫學從此已經改變了所有美國人的平均預期壽命。但是杜波依斯觀察到的許多分歧仍然存在。非裔美國人仍然是美國最貧窮的，住房最簡陋的以及最不健康的大型群體，在這一群體中，哮喘、糖尿病、高血壓、癌癥和肥胖的發病率很高。在1899年，黑人的嬰兒死亡率幾乎是白人的兩倍；現在是白人的2.2倍。如果有什么區別的話，相較于杜波依斯描述的非裔美國人用牛奶、面包和油炸豬肉作為口糧，他們現在的飲食要更不健康。所謂的“食物荒漠”是一個現代的現象。有16萬人住在哥倫比亞特區中最貧窮的黑人街區，街區7和街區8，這兩個街區位于受污染的阿納科斯蒂亞河以東，他們只有三家超市。他們的醫療保障也是全市最低的，沒有大醫院。
Little wonder blacks have been so stricken by covid-19. The disease kills in tandem with the ailments they suffer from the most.The latest data suggest one in 2,000 African-Americans has died of it, even though the southern states, where over half live, have been relatively spared. Partly for that reason, black Americans are not unusually likelier to catch the virus. Yet those who do are 2.4 times likelier to die than whites and 2.2 times likelier than Asians and Latinos. In Washington, DC, blacks are less than 47% of the population, but account for 80% of its 445 coronavtrus deaths.
難怪新冠狀病毒將黑人打擊的這么慘。這場疾病與他們所患最多的疾病同時發生并致死。最新的數據表明在2000個非裔美國人中，就有一人死于該病，即使是在南部各州有一半人存活下來，但他們也并未幸免于難。部分原因是美國黑人通常易感這個病毒。然而，這些人死亡的可能性是白人的2.4倍，是亞洲人和拉丁美洲人的2.2倍。在華盛頓特區，黑人人口少于總人口的47%，但占當地445例冠狀病毒死亡案例的80%。
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