Former Vice President Joe Biden highlighted a startling coronavirus-related statistic regarding Black people during the Tuesday (September 29) presidential debate with President Donald Trump.
“You talk about helping African Americans — 1 in 1,000 African Americans has been killed because of the coronavirus,” the Democrat claimed. “And if he doesn’t do something quickly, by the end of the year, 1 in 500 will have been killed.”
The APM Research Lab found in mid-September that 1 in 1,020 Black Americans has died, or 97.9 deaths per 100,000 during the pandemic.
"If they had died of COVID-19 at the same actual rate as White Americans, about 20,800 Black, 10,900 Latino, 700 Indigenous, and 80 Pacific Islander Americans would still be alive," according to the study.
Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) released a study that found people of color were more likely to die and be hospitalized from virus-related complications compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts.
The health agency noted that Black Americans have 2.1 times more COVID-19 deaths than non-Hispanic white Americans.
"Race and ethnicity are risk markers for other underlying conditions that impact health — including socioeconomic status, access to health care, and increased exposure to the virus due to occupation (e.g., frontline, essential, and critical infrastructure workers)," according to the CDC.
There hasn't been any studies to back up Biden's claim that 1 in 500 Black Americans may die by the end of the year.
Vox claims Biden's assertion may be derived from an estimate related to overall COVID-19 deaths in the United States, particularly a study that claimed the U.S. death toll may double to 410,000 by January 1, 2021.
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