Remember when the media spent months screaming that blacks were dying at much higher rates than whites and that obviously “systemic racism” was too blame? This was a false narrative. The percentages of white and black deaths have evened out, which was a reasonably predictable outcome. Many in the media knew they were hustling a false narrative. Dense urban areas, such as Detroit and New York City, were among the first places hard hit. Urban residents in the USA are disproportionately black. However, now things have averaged out.
(Note: The definition of a Covid-19 “death” in the USA is extremely broad, and differs from state to state.)
As of February 10th, the percentage of black US Covid-19 deaths stands at 14.8% of the total, entirely in line with the overall black population percentage. This stands in stark contrast to the CDC claiming that blacks are 90% more likely to die. A declaration that the CDC is still making on their national website. The CDC blames “socioeconomic status, access to health care, and exposure to the virus related to occupation” for this alleged 90% increased risk.
Georgia, a state with a large urban black population, is now reporting identical rates for whites and blacks. 149 per 100k each.
Louisiana was the state that the media most heavily focused on when it came to highlighting an alleged racial disparity in Covid-19 deaths. Yet, the state’s black death rate is now only 25% higher than the white rate. 242 vs 194 per 100k.
Mississippi has the highest black population of any US state, and the black death rate is only 10% higher than the white rate.
The only states currently reporting the kind of disparity being alleged on the CDC website are Michigan and New York. Michigan reports that blacks are 86% more likely to have died. Perhaps because Detroit was among the first places hard hit and the virus spread through the city’s hospitals. New York reports that blacks are 120% more likely to have died. Though the data from New York is the most controversial in the nation and the governor of the state is now facing the possibility of criminal charges for manipulating the state’s data on deaths.
(If we believe that “systemic racism” is to blame for higher black death rates, then that means New York and Michigan are the most systemically racist.)
West Virginia is reporting a white death 74% higher than their black rate. Iowa is reporting a white death rate that is 60% higher, and Arizona is reporting a white death rate 45% higher.
Other states reporting higher white deaths rates include Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.
Out of the 49 states with published death rates based on race, over half, 53%, report a higher death rate for whites than blacks. This includes many states with very significant black populations like Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, and Texas.
The good news is that the virus is mostly slowing way down for every group.
During the seven-day period between 2/14 and 2/20, an average of 1.35 million Covid-19 tests were administered in the USA per day. An average of 66.2k came back positive each day, which is 4.9%. The lowest positive rate, by region, is in the West. An average of only 3.7% of test-takers received a positive result during these seven days. For the state of California, the positive rate was only 3.3%.
There is a wild card. There is no clear answer on the rate of false positives. The CDC officially recognizes that false positives are a problem, especially with the rapid response tests. The number of people taking the test and the number testing positive is dropping fast. The rate at which people tested positive peaked at around 12.5% in mid-January.
The number of people testing positive each day is back down to a level not seen since last October, and fewer people were being tested per day last October.
Only two states saw considerable increases in the number of new daily cases from 2/14 to 2/20, Wyoming and North Dakota. However, these are both states that were never hard hit before. The virus tended to affect dense urban areas first.
