Currently, the world community is rethinking the problems of a multinational state in the context of measures that can stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus on the planet. The tension of the situation inside America is due to the fact that the problems associated with minorities have worsened, which violates the state of stable civilizational development. As a result of the pandemic, the state’s role in solving global problems has increased, particularly regarding the social issues of minority inequality and environmental racism.
A social class is a large group of people who occupy similar positions in the economic structure of society. Various kinds of differences cause the social inequality of classes between these groups. These differences lie in the nature and amount of ownership of the means of production and goods manufactured, and the level of material well-being. Social class is measured by determining the position of an individual relative to the poverty line (Rossen et al., 2021). This position is determined by the household income ratio to the national average or by meeting basic needs, including social and environmental ones. People with low incomes are the largest group of the population who have the greatest need for medical care and the most significant obstacles in obtaining it. Due to financial difficulties, that group has constant problems getting medical care; therefore, the mortality rate among it is higher. As people belonging to the wealthy class have the opportunity to immediately consult a doctor in the case of COVID-19, their health outcomes are mostly positive.
Initially, the probability of mortality from COVID-19 was only associated with the age and gender of patients, but then the attention to race was drawn. African-Americans are more likely to become victims of the pandemic in the country, and they are also more susceptible to infection (Washington, 2020). The racial gap in coronavirus victims is explained by the social status of rates for people who belong to minority groups. They are at greater risk due to the fact that they are more likely to suffer from diabetes, and they have severe heart and lung pathologies (Wright, 2018). Chronic illnesses are the result of poverty caused by decades of racial discrimination. Access to health care is difficult for many members of minorities. A lot of people do not have health insurance, and if they do, it does not cover all expenses, so serious diseases are not cured on time.
Moreover, one of the leading causes of mortality is environmental inequality – the lack of access for representatives of the poor social class to areas with an unpolluted environment. Representatives of minorities live in the areas with poor ecology, which provokes respiratory diseases and makes them more vulnerable to coronavirus. Harmful biological effects are produced by powerful electric, electromagnetic and ultrahigh-frequency fields, noise used in production. These factors cause disruption of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, metabolism, decreased conditioned reflex activity, and deterioration of reproductive function, hearing, and vision disorders (Washington, 2020). Changes in the composition and properties of the air environment also adversely affect human health. The body’s respiratory, cardiovascular, and immune systems are particularly affected by harmful components of atmospheric air.
The formation of a new inequality is a current challenge for the development of macroeconomic policy. New fears and anxieties of people are associated with the growth of economic and environmental stratification between them. The class stratification is growing between white people of prestigious professions and unemployed minority representatives. The ecological division is also growing between the residents of the prosperous areas of the metropolis and the depressed suburbs of the cities. The pandemic has intensified these processes, and the new inequality is becoming the most important economic problem of the post-crisis era that needs to be solved.
References
Rossen, L. M., Ahmad, F. B., Anderson, R. N., Branum, A. M., Du, C., Krumholz, H. M., Li, S. H., Lin, Z., Marshall, A., Sutton, D. P., & Faust, J. S. (2021). Disparities in excess mortality associated with COVID-19 — United States, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(33), 114-1119. Web.
Washington, H. A. (2020). How environmental racism is fuelling the coronavirus pandemic. Web.
Wright, W. J. (2018). As above, so below: Anti-black violence as environmental racism.A Radical Journal of Geography, 0(0), 1-19. Web.