By Melenna Awaju
After an analysis in June of last year was conducted months after the surge in COVID-19 cases, it became evident that Black Canadians were disproportionately affected. There were higher rates of infection, hospitalization and mortality in individuals, particularly those within low income, low education level and certain employment brackets. Although systemic anti-Black racism is largely at play, there has simply not been enough race-based research to elaborate on this claim and these initial statistical findings. The stories of Black Canadians during the pandemic are still very much untold and advocates are encouraging that governments collect race-based data, including those in particular niches as well, such as the pandemic's impact on racialized children. This would be in order to understand the underlying factors contributing to these distressing findings.
A newer September study conducted by the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council and Innovative Research Group further elaborates on COVID-19's disproportionate impact on the health and finances of this marginalized community in particular. The following report findings come from an online poll sampling 2 322 adult Canadians. Based on Statistics Canada's 2016 Census data to accurately reflect demographic composition, it represented a national sample size of 400 Black Canadians and 1 500 Canadians. In terms of employment, "layoffs, reduced work hours and a reduction in household incomes at higher rates" were seen amongst Blacks. There were also higher rates of employment and lifestyles amongst Blacks requiring several occasions of close contact with others. This is in line with the higher rate of Blacks being front-line workers such as PSWs, nurses, drivers and those relying on public transit.
Other findings, mostly anecdotal due to limited research efforts, show impacts of the pandemic on the wellbeing of Black immigrants, Black mental health and raise awareness about inequities within the healthcare system, amongst other things. COVID-19 has been known to uncover historical inequities and disparities seen in areas such as housing, justice and education, not thoroughly reflected on because of the unease it creates. However, working to combat this pandemic has forced revelations of these inequities that must be resolved in order to successfully combat COVID's disproportionate consequences on minorities.
Elaborating on these various examples, newer immigrants are dealing with difficulties with regards to seeking information and medical assistance due to language barriers and an increased risk to mental health during periods of self-isolation for those infected by the virus.
Admittedly, information found on mental health and healthcare disparities against Blacks was based in the United States, with Canadian empirical evidence virtually absent. In the States, Blacks were reported having significantly lesser access to mental health and substance abuse treatment services during the pandemic, and as a few news headlines have shown, have also been treated unfairly in hospitals (examples including complaints ignored and longer wait times endured). It is very possible that similar scenarios are occurring here.
Within the business sector, Black-owned business areas such as those in Toronto are enduring tremendous pressures amplified with COVID-19. In many of these areas, restaurants, salons and clothing stores have been forced to operate at half-capacity due to ongoing construction and gentrification in the past several years and with the added pandemic, there are pressures to close due to sharp revenue declines, threatening a loss to Black culture and history.
What is also very concerning is the vaccine hesitancy within the Black community, which must be deconstructed and understood.
Fortunately, there are initiatives and programs to dismantle many of these issues within the Canadian context. From government, Toronto's Mayor John Tory released the Black Community COVID-19 Response Plan in February for continued race-based research, efforts to resolve vaccine hesitancy through national townhall meetings, $6.8 million in funding to support neighbourhoods with the highest COVID-19 case rates, and "increases in culturally-responsive mental health supports, food access provisions for Black-mandated organizations and mobile and community-based testing." Within the private sector, Dr. Upton Allen, the head of the Division on infectious Diseases at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, is leading a large-scale study to evaluate "prevalence and risk factors among Black communities in Canada" to support public health response and policy making. Dr. Allen and others are working with the Canadian COVID Genomics Network's HostSeq initiative to sequence genomes of Canadians affected by COVID-19. This is in order to retrieve immunogenetic and clinical data to create a national database where individual variability in patient outcomes may be analyzed. With this database, inks to social determinants data will be made as well to understand the impact on determinants of health and their influence on at-risk individuals, specifically those pertaining to marginalized communities.
To further support initiatives and plan out solutions with higher guarantees of success, race-based pandemic data, as previously elaborated on, is a must. Fortunately, key governmental stakeholders are starting to support this idea. The Ontario Human Rights Commission states that such data is "the foundation of evidence-informed decision-making," as it allows "health-care leaders to identify populations at heightened risk of infection or transmission." Trudeau and the Ontario health minister have also stated that they are considering race-based data collection. With these solid efforts at play, there is sure to be more optimistic findings and resolutions made in the near future.
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