Why COVID-19 hit non-white Americans hardest

A new book explores why COVID-19 deaths disproportionately affected non-white Americans.

Mortality rose across all demographics during first few years of the pandemic, but COVID-19 hit non-white Americans the hardest.

According to the US Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics, the largest increase in mortality in 2020 was among the American Indian and Native Alaskan populations, which saw an increase of 36.7%.

The increase in mortality was 29.7% among Black Americans and 29.4% among Asian Americans. For comparison, the increase in mortality among white Americans was less than 20%.

Melvin Thomas, a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University, is the author and co-editor of the new book Race, Ethnicity and the COVID-19 Pandemic (University of Cincinnati Press, 2023).

Here, he talks about the role that racial inequality played—and continues to play—in shaping health outcomes in the United States.

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