Black and Hispanic/Latino Americans have coronavirus mortality rates as much as 10x higher than white Americans' when age is taken into account, according to a new analysis by the Brookings Institution.
Why it matters: We've known that minorities are being hit harder by the coronavirus, but we didn't know it was this bad.
Between the lines: White Americans tend to be older than black and Latino Americans, putting a higher percentage of white people in older and thus more vulnerable age brackets. That's skewed the overall death rate by race.
When unadjusted for age, black people have a death rate twice that for whites, and Hispanics' death rate is about the same as whites'.
But when age is taken into account, the death rate for black Americans is 3.6 times that of white Americans, and Hispanics' is 2.5 times higher.
The bottom line: "Race gaps in vulnerability to Covid-19 highlight the accumulated, intersecting inequities facing Americans of color (but especially Black people) in jobs, housing, education, criminal justice – and in health," the authors write.