Introduction and Methodology
The COVID-19 is an infectious respiratory disease that has amplified the integral role of society as the basis of almost all challenges afflicting the world. Within months of its emergence, the pandemic spread rapidly, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, stretching the capacity of the healthcare systems, and exposing people to the adversarial impacts of the containment measures.
This paper explores COVID-19 and its severity as a social problem, particularly regarding the exposure of the existing disparities in healthcare outcomes between diverse social groups, ethnicities, age, and gender in Washington D. C. The severity of the ravages brought by COVID-19 is depicted by the high number of infections, hospitalization, extreme negative economic consequences, and mortalities among the racial minorities compared to their white counterparts.
To explore Covid-19 as an individual and social problem in Washington D. C., this essay utilizes statistics from reputable sources, including government websites, studies by think tanks, newspaper articles, and published journals. Various challenges were encountered in the process of data collection, including contradictory and inconclusive findings and the enormous volumes of information amount relating to the subject. Notably, this was paper provided the perfect opportunity for realizing the essence of integrating the appropriate methodology and obtaining high-quality data to promote inductive thinking and develop logical thoughts.
This implies that the choice of a research technique used influences the possibility of encountering broader insights and the associated explanations. Additionally, the adopted procedure determines the soundness and quality of the conclusions and suggestions. Overall, the usage of reputable statistics enhances the article’s credibility, arguments, and analysis by relying on actual and verifiable data to achieve the desired purpose and expands the existing knowledge base.
Sociological Roots
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage all segments of the global population, its detrimental ramifications are differentiated across diverse races, genders, classes, and ages, with the most vulnerable social groups experiencing the most significant harm. Multiple studies have demonstrated that the economic and health impacts of the pandemic are being born by the socially disadvantaged and minority races in the United States. According to Boserup et al. (2020), COVID-19 has brought systemic injustices and institutionalized social inequalities to the forefront. In Washington D. C., African Americans are underpaid in the labor market, with most of them living in poor neighborhoods (Firebaugh & Acciai, 2016; Desmond & Wilmers, 2019).
Enriquez and Goldstein (2020) posit that low-income earners have experienced severe levels of economic hardships, primarily due to the nature of their jobs and constrained financial options. Federgruen and Naha (2021) corroborate these views and argue that a neighborhood’s demographic aspects, domestic environment, and socioeconomic attributes are prominent drivers of infections. These studies demonstrate that crowded homes and disadvantaged areas dominated by racial minorities exposed them to higher risks of contracting the virus than their white counterparts.
Background Factors Leading to the Seriousness of COVID-19 in the United States
Racial Inequalities and Disparities in Healthcare Access and Outcomes
The United States ranks among the countries that have been worst hit by coronavirus pandemic. Despite the expansive healthcare infrastructure and progressive policies, multiple background factors have collaboratively influenced the devastating spike in COVID-19 infections, morbidities, and mortalities in the country. One prominent background factor determining the severity of the disease and healthcare outcomes is ethnicity, directly linked to the medical sector’s systemic racial inequalities and social injustices. Dyer (2020) notes that predominantly black counties have recorded three and six times the infection and mortality rates than white neighborhoods, respectively.
From this perspective, health disparities have emerged as one of the most decisive background factors, leading to the seriousness of COVID-19 in the Washington D. C. Although these inequities have always existed among the blacks, Native Americans, and Latinx/Hispanic communities, they have impeded equal access to medical care, exposing them to many health issues. For instance, these minority groups carry a higher chronic disease burden, including diabetes, hypertension, lung illnesses, and heart conditions, predisposing them to serious coronavirus complications.
Nature of the Jobs and Economic Opportunities
Racial minorities dominate the customer-facing jobs, which put them in close contact with the public, making the exercise of such containment measures as social distancing more difficult. For instance, these ethnicities are overrepresented in the hotel and food service industries, with most of them working as chauffeurs, restaurant attendants, and taxi drivers. This implies that the employment opportunities available for racial minorities in Washington D.C. predispose them to a greater risk of contracting and being harmed by the pandemic. In this regard, these communities work as essential workers to sustain their living in jobs characterized by more in-person interactions.
Advanced Age of the Population
Another background sociological factor contributing to the spiraling infections and mortalities in the United States is the generally advanced age of the population. Multiple data sets illustrate the disproportionately adverse healthcare outcomes for people aged 50 years and above, with the risk increasing enormously among older people. According to Yanez et al. (2020), the likelihood of developing severe illness with coronavirus rises with age, with older individuals at the highest risk.
Another set of statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that despite the people aged above 85 years comprising 2.9% of the total caseload, the average fatality of this age group was 32.1% (Kang & Jung, 2020; Trent et al., 2020). From this perspective, the relative advancement in age of the general American population increased their danger of hospitalization and the need for acute care.
Housing Disparities and Impoverished Neighborhood
Racial disparities in housing and the neighborhoods’ economic wellbeing in the United States have played an influential role in escalating COVID-19 infections, particularly among the ethnic minorities and native communities. Notably, residential segregation is a widespread phenomenon in Washington D. C. and traps African Americans, Hispanics/Latinx, and other natives in unhealthy, overcrowded, and polluted neighborhoods. Remarkably, these areas are characterized by the constrained capacities for exercising social distancing, leaving the occupants potentially more exposed to contracting the COVID-19 (Torrats-Espinosa, 2021).
For instance, the disproportionate burden of the pandemic is witnessed in locations with the highest levels of housing segregation. In this regard, the racial inequalities in housing, overcrowding, and impoverished socioeconomic wellbeing of the neighborhoods predominantly occupied by minorities contributed significantly to the proliferation of COVID-19 infections in Washington D. C.
Gender Effect
Multiple data sets collected from numerous countries worldwide indicate that although women and men are equally likely to contract COVID-19, the latter is highly likely to develop severe illness and mortality. These findings demonstrate the adverse reduced health outcomes among men and their likelihood to develop acute illness and death. Although this phenomenon could be attributed to higher community interactions among men, they provide crucial insight into the gender disparities in health outcomes.
History of the Problem in Washington D. C.
Health inequities and other social injustices are systemic and institutionalized differences in the status and distribution of medical resources between diverse population groups in Washington, D. C. The findings of a study published by Georgetown University of Nursing & Health Studies established that African Americans, on average, lead less healthy lives and live considerably shorter than their white counterparts due to systemic disparities in housing, healthcare, wealth, and education (Roberts et al., 2020). The differences have played an integral role in subjecting the blacks to the disproportionate severity of Covid-19.
Marmot (2017) notes that such communal factors as ethnicity, income level, education, and gender have a remarkable influence on an individual’s health outcomes. These aspects result in social stratification and have determined critical issues such as accessibility, affordability, and friendliness of the medical systems for hundreds of years in the United States. The entrenchment and perpetuation of social injustices and racial inequalities in the country were institutionalized during the slavery era and continue to impact multiple dimensions of peoples’ lives. Therefore, the gravity and of America’s COVID-19 crisis on African Americans can be strongly associated with these historical issues.
Sociological Analysis
The severity of COVID-19 infections in Washington D. C. is not a random phenomenon, but the number of infections, hospitalizations, and mortality is disproportionately affecting the ethnic minorities, the elderly, men, and the socioeconomically disadvantage. Similarly, the economic ramifications are unevenly distributed across diverse populations, with the majority white sections bearing the least impacts (Whitehead et al., 2021). Notably, these attributes demonstrate the COVID-19 pandemic as a social problem, reflecting the profoundness of the existing disparities in health outcomes between diverse groups.
Additionally, the vastly differentiated experiences of the pandemic and the varying effects of the containment measures by ethnicities, gender, and class mirror the health challenge as a significant social problem. For instance, minority ethnicities, Asians, and blacks are more likely to contract the disease, experience hospitalization, and even die of COVID-19 than their white counterparts (Martin et al., 2020; Boserup et al., 2020). Moreover, the elderly have shouldered a disproportionate burden of the disease in mortality, reflecting the general low regard and neglect in which society embraces older adults.
The social divisions and differences resulting from the coronavirus pandemic confirms what Wright Mills views as the interconnectedness and interplay of the social attributes with the challenges experienced at the individual level. For instance, published statistics indicate that African Americans were 1.8 times more likely to contract COVID-19 than the general population (Reyes, 2020). These official data sets reveal that the impact of COVID-19 was attributed to the existing differences in the communities’ health, wealth, living arrangements, education levels, ethnicity, and race. Further, statistics published by CDC suggest that ethnic minorities experienced greater exposure to COVID-19 due to the nature of their jobs and their living conditions (Garg et al., 2020).
Gupta et al. (2020) and Tai et al. (2021) argue that African Americans and other racial minorities recorded higher comorbidities, acute hospitalization, and mortalities than white people in Washington D. C. In this regard, an individual’s race, a sociological factor beyond their control, plays an influential role in increasing or decreasing their likelihood of contracting the virus and the healthcare outcomes.
In medical sociology, social divisions define peoples’ healthcare outcomes and susceptibility to illnesses. This perspective indicates that poor health stems from living in impoverished neighborhoods and contributes to the individual’s health-seeking behaviors. Regarding the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on racial minorities in the United States, Durkheim and Weber would interpret this pattern as an outcome of social stratification, which segregates African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. Notably, a person’s social class directly impacts their physical health, ability to receive adequate medical attention, nutrition, and even life expectancy.
Additionally, risk tendencies are unevenly distributed among the various social classes, contributing to the population’s health gradient. From this dimension, Durkheim and Weber would have analyzed and interpreted the disproportionate COVID-19 burden on racial minorities to social stratification.
Policy Solutions
Previous Attempts to Address Racial and Systemic Inequalities
Washington D. C. has implemented a wide range of interventions to address the racial and systemic inequalities which contribute to poor health outcomes among ethnic minorities. For instance, Medicaid and Medicare interventions initiated collaboratively by the federal and state governments have significantly increased access to healthcare. However, one failure of these programs is that they do not address the systemic factors which increase the racial minorities’ susceptibilities and exposure to diseases. This implies deliberate efforts should be channeled towards demolishing the structural and institutionalized segregation and social caste systems, which impede the African Americans’ ability to access quality care and pursue health-seeking behaviors.
For instance, increasing cultural competence and awareness among the healthcare workers serving racial minorities without addressing their poor housing and living conditions have not been effective in reducing their vulnerability to diseases. In recent years, there have been deliberate efforts to ensure fair and just distribution of resources across all neighborhoods, regardless of the dominant race. However, this approach has not successfully eliminated the injustices and inequities since it does not address the risk factors or effectively address the decades of segregation.
Solutions
Social injustices and racial inequalities in the United States contribute to the country’s prevalent healthcare disparities and inequities. Although such previous attempts as expanding medical insurance coverage, increasing the number and capacity of care providers in underserved communities, and enhancing cultural competence have improved the situation, much is yet to be done. Further, the federal and state governments should collaborate with local communities and private organizations to create innovative ways of addressing the structural problems, which contribute to the neglect of the elderly.
Similarly, comprehensive and adequately coordinated interventions should be implemented to increase the racial minorities’ access to high-quality education as a strategy to promote upward social mobility. This implies that developing responsive socioeconomic strategies to promote these communities’ financial and economic wellbeing is an indispensable component of promoting their overall health. Notably, previous attempts have not been significantly successful in alleviating these disparities due to their inability to address the root causes of the challenges. Other programs, such as training healthcare workers from local communities, increasing advocacy for immunizations and vaccinations, and public outreach on health-seeking habits, can also help mitigate the poor health outcomes.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world has highlighted the prevalence and depth of inequalities and racial injustices in the United States, thereby enlarging the relevance of sociology. Ethnic minorities have been disproportionately affected by the virus, reflecting the country’s adverse impacts of healthcare disparities and segregation. In this regard, sociology has a considerable role in shaping and defining public policies that would help in creating a genuinely interdependent society with minimal social stratification and segregationist tendencies.
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