2020年经济学人 美国黑人的医疗状况不容乐观(1)（在线收听）

United States

美国版块

Lexington

列克星敦

Black America in peril

美国黑人危在旦夕

The vulnerability of African-Americans to the coronavirus is a national emergency

非裔美国人易感冠状病毒是全国性的紧急情况。

"THE MOST difficult social problem in the matter of Negro health", wrote the sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois in 1899, was to understand why so few white Americans were bothered by it. The poor black lives Du Bois described in his pioneering study, "The Philadelphia Negro", were spent "in the most unhealthy parts of the city and in the worst houses", with minimal medical attention.They tended to be sickly and short.Yet he could think of "few other cases in the history of civilised peoples where human suffering has been viewed with such peculiar indifference."

社会学家杜波依斯在1899年写道“针对黑人的健康问题，其最困难的社会问题在于理解为什么几乎没有白人受到这样的困扰。”杜波依斯在他具有先驱性的研究“费城黑人”中描述过黑人的贫困生活，他们生活在“城市中最不健康的地方和最糟糕的房子里”，几乎没有得到过医疗照顾。他们往往体弱多病且身材矮小。然而，他可以想到“在文明民族的历史上，几乎没有出现过其它的案例，即人们能够对人类的苦难如此的漠不关心。”

Modern medicine has since transformed the life expectancy of all Americans. But many of the disparities Du Bois observed remain.African-Americans are still the country's poorest, pooresthoused and unhealthiest large group, with high incidences of asthma, diabetes, hypertension, cancer and obesity. In 1899 infant mortality was almost twice as high among blacks as among whites; now it is 2.2 times higher. If anything, African-American diets are unhealthier now than the rations of milk, bread and fried pork Du Bois described. So-called "food deserts" are a modern phenomenon.The 160,000 people who live in the District of Columbia's two poorest and overwhelmingly black wards, 7 and 8, east of the polluted Anacostia river, have only three supermarkets. They also have the sparsest health care in the city, with no major hospital.

现代医学从此已经改变了所有美国人的平均预期寿命。但是杜波依斯观察到的许多分歧仍然存在。非裔美国人仍然是美国最贫穷的，住房最简陋的以及最不健康的大型群体，在这一群体中，哮喘、糖尿病、高血压、癌症和肥胖的发病率很高。在1899年，黑人的婴儿死亡率几乎是白人的两倍；现在是白人的2.2倍。如果有什么区别的话，相较于杜波依斯描述的非裔美国人用牛奶、面包和油炸猪肉作为口粮，他们现在的饮食要更不健康。所谓的“食物荒漠”是一个现代的现象。有16万人住在哥伦比亚特区中最贫穷的黑人街区，街区7和街区8，这两个街区位于受污染的阿纳科斯蒂亚河以东，他们只有三家超市。他们的医疗保障也是全市最低的，没有大医院。

Little wonder blacks have been so stricken by covid-19. The disease kills in tandem with the ailments they suffer from the most.The latest data suggest one in 2,000 African-Americans has died of it, even though the southern states, where over half live, have been relatively spared. Partly for that reason, black Americans are not unusually likelier to catch the virus. Yet those who do are 2.4 times likelier to die than whites and 2.2 times likelier than Asians and Latinos. In Washington, DC, blacks are less than 47% of the population, but account for 80% of its 445 coronavtrus deaths.

难怪新冠状病毒将黑人打击的这么惨。这场疾病与他们所患最多的疾病同时发生并致死。最新的数据表明在2000个非裔美国人中，就有一人死于该病，即使是在南部各州有一半人存活下来，但他们也并未幸免于难。部分原因是美国黑人通常易感这个病毒。然而，这些人死亡的可能性是白人的2.4倍，是亚洲人和拉丁美洲人的2.2倍。在华盛顿特区，黑人人口少于总人口的47%，但占当地445例冠状病毒死亡案例的80%。