The American-American community is disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS This Morning on Tuesday.
"I have high blood pressure ... I have heart disease and spent a week in the (intensive care unit) due to a heart condition," Adams said. "I actually have asthma and I'm pre-diabetic, and so I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black. I and many black Americans are at higher risk for COVID. It's why we need everyone to do their part to slow the spread."
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, echoed Adam’s sentiments Tuesday afternoon, at a White House briefing saying African Americans "are suffering disproportionately." "[W]hen they do get infected, their underlying medical conditions ... wind them up in the ICU," he said.
Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response director, followed up by saying we are reaching out to the HBCU community and advocates to ask them to help with messaging to the Black Community about the impact of the coronavirus to ensure accurate information is getting out to them.