'Poverty pandemic': why low-income people die from coronavirus in New York

Economic inequality in New York has always been acute. In the context of the epidemic of coronavirus infection, this fact only clearly confirms what was said. This is stated in the column published on the site. American conservation.

Real problem

Today, almost all New Yorkers talk about only one thing: when quarantine ends and you can return to normal. However, this very “normality” did not go anywhere.

“We have replaced economic inequality, expressed in poverty, with inequality of a different kind, when the sign of being at the bottom of the social pyramid is death from the virus,” the author notes. “The real problem is not when we get back to normal. The real problem is that we will certainly return to this normality, we cannot run away from it. "

Everything that attracted people from all over the world to New York has disappeared. After all, the megalopolis made attractive its indefatigable energy and movement. Today it’s “just a huge empty space, where all the flaws appear like seams on poorly tailored clothes”.

“Closed shops are still decorated in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Time stopped in March. I am a native New Yorker who left and returned seven years ago. And now - again a catastrophe, an emergency, about which one can say: we are standing on the edge, not jumping down, ”the author noted.

The tragedies that New York experienced

New York has experienced many tragedies: the September 11 attacks, the financial crisis of 2008, the superstorm Sandy, and now also "this cold horror."

“Today the city looks more like a gray post-war East Germany, it’s not even Berlin hot from panic in the last days of the war,” the author emphasized.

As you know, New York has suffered more from the virus than other states in America. The Greater New York area accounts for about half of all US deaths. Of course, there are other foci of infection, but if there are thousands of deaths in New York, then in some states there are only a few, and in most there are hundreds.

“The pop stars will soon be hosting charity concerts for us again, just like after September 11, 2001. And again, these stars will, as the publicist put it, “with some kind of fierce tenderness demonstrate how desperately America loves New York,” the author notes.

However, what really comes to mind after a while is the sincere kindness of people to each other.

“When this city, like an old man, mutters in a dream, recalling the best years, most often he recalls the kindness that people showed to each other in September 2001, with its blue sky and those little pleasantries that people showed each other in the city - the victim of a terrorist attack, - the author believes. - To hold the door, to allow a person to pass out of line, to smile with the edge of your lips at a complete stranger. The chic was that just a few days ago, (when people ran out of burning skyscrapers. - Ed.), such a courtesy with letting another person forward could turn you into fried game. ”

On the subject: New York authorities ask the White House for $ 7,5 billion in help: the number of coronavirus victims has risen sharply

The virus is different. “We growl at each other, becoming enemies, because everyone is a potential carrier of the infection. This is no longer the city where people gave you their personal space without throwing a devastating look at you. Go outside without a mask - and someone will bark at you, - the author writes. - Here are two Latinos hissing something in Spanish at an Asian. Long queues at the grocery store, in which everyone is watching vigilantly, like a North Korean border guard, if someone skips the line. "

Lack of cohesion

Society is no longer as cohesive as it was before. “After September 11, no one ever ridiculed Bush on Sunday's programs and in the evening news (George W. Bush was president at the time of the September 11 terrorist attack and was not criticized on TV as part of national rallying. - Ed.), and insulting Trump is considered good form today. If we were once united, then obviously not now, ”the author noted.

This is because “we are not together now,” although Governor Andrew Cuomo says otherwise. “Nobody is protected from this virus. And now I don't care how smart, rich and influential you think you are, ”Cuomo said.

Poor neighborhoods

Today the virus is concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods of Queens and the Bronx, where Hispanics and blacks live. Mortality from the virus among Hispanics - 22 people per 100 thousand; among blacks - 20 per 100 thousand; among whites - 10 per 100 thousand.

“For whites, even this figure is deceiving, because in individual Jewish enclaves of Brooklyn, where the Hasidim live, there are dangerous foci of the disease, and in areas where white people with high incomes live, there are no deaths at all. Poor people are more likely to die at home than in hospital, and the rise in deaths at home without any screening or testing suggests that the virus is actually more likely to die. In general, in New York, the virus is twice as deadly for Hispanics and blacks as for whites, ”the author writes.

Economic inequality

Economic inequality is another New York City problem, ahead of other cities in this indicator. “It is home to 70 billionaires - more than any other American city. Among all these wealthy people live the largest homeless population in America. The number of New Yorkers living below the poverty line exceeds the population of Philadelphia and Phoenix, the author noted. “If you take them all together, these poor people make up the seventh largest city in the United States. Billionaires fund social services, and the poor clean the houses and take out the garbage of billionaires. "

The reasons for this injustice are the same. “People in poor neighborhoods are served by squalid public hospitals, not first-class private clinics. A coronavirus patient in the devastated Bronx is twice as likely to die as a sick resident of a "pretty" neighborhood. The problem is not in quantity, but in the quality of healthcare, ”he said.

As one member of the local legislature stated, New York today is "monitoring real-time racial inequality and the poverty pandemic."

86% of the poor New Yorkers who died had underlying medical conditions, often caused by poor nutrition. Many residents of the poor neighborhoods suffer from diabetes, hypertension and obesity. “In the South Bronx there are three times more cases of hypertension and five times more diabetes than in the wealthy lower Manhattan. The situation is the same with the flu, which this season has killed twice as many people as COVID-19, ”the author noted.

Epicenter

The Elmhurst area in Queens was called the "epicenter of epicenters" by the mayor. 64% of its inhabitants are Hispanics, and the average family income there is 75% of the total for the city. Almost 11% of families live together for several generations. And since young people (she carries the virus without symptoms of illness) and the elderly live together, the incidence rate is higher there.

For example, Brooklyn's Park Slope has some of the city's lowest incidence rates of COVID-19 (56% below average). Two-thirds of Park Slope's population is white, and the household income is one and a half times the average. Less than 2% of families live with the elderly. "But when the chief sanitary doctor pointed out to people with colored skin that to strengthen their immunity during a pandemic, they should stop drinking and using drugs, he was called a racist," the author added.

According to him, "this is a normal state." “The economic inequality that is fueling the rise in disease in New York City has existed in the city long before the virus, and COVID-19 just blossomed amid this grim reality. What is happening now - the death of people - has always happened, people just died more slowly, ”he explained.

In this situation, the city's attempt to find an answer to such questions as the balance between the health of citizens and its economic needs, starting a business and others "makes you laugh." “Economic inequality has always killed people. And the current ban on the poor from working only makes them poorer and more painful. This is a slow death, and it is not counted in the quick and easily quantifiable statistics of deaths from the coronavirus, ”the author emphasized.

School closure as a “last resort”

New York authorities are accused of being late in deciding to close public schools. But many wealthy private schools closed on their own in early March. The mayor did not close the huge public school system until mid-month. “But not for educational purposes, no,” the author explained. "Simply because it acts as a social services center for poor children, including 114 homeless students."

More than half of the students in public schools receive food there, and for homeless children, the school is the only place where they can wash their clothes and wash. Through schools, contraceptive measures and checks for sexually transmitted diseases in children from Latin American Catholic families are secretly carried out. Schools take care of children throughout the day so poor parents can work. For them, school is the last hope that their children will not join gangs. At school, they rest from the atrocities that often occur in their families. “For many children, a school is a safer place than a home,” one teacher said. The closure of schools was the "last resort", because at school you can’t hide from the virus. As a result, there has been a surge in child and family violence in New York. This was to be expected, and everyone knew about it. ”

During the terrible flu pandemic, the Spaniard in 1918, when 30 New Yorkers died, the head of the health department demanded that public schools not be closed. He considered that if the children were together at school, it would be less dangerous than if they would sit in unsanitary conditions in their cramped homes. This leader then also noted that working immigrant parents do not have time to take care of children, and therefore it would be better if schools take care of them.

Public Transport

The same can be said about the metro, which continues to operate around the clock, seven days a week. It has become a very effective means of spreading the virus. “Poor people cannot work remotely like they did in 1918. New York did not close public schools and public transport, then or now, although he knew they would become a breeding ground for the virus. It's just that the alternative seemed much worse to the city, ”the author noted.

He noted that he lived in different developing countries and knows that inequality can get used to. “You are rich, and they are poor, this is how life is arranged, there is no one to blame for this, you did not do it and you will not be able to fix it,” he noted and added: “Most of all,“ discovering ”New York is hindered by the fact that In 2020, it is no longer possible to justify and explain this in a form acceptable from the point of view of political correctness. True, we have been “discovering” what should be closed for 100 years already. But now we need to do it in such a way that our dollar apartheid works according to some rules. And that these rules are suitable for publication in decent form in the Sunday paper. The rest is a matter of technology. "

Text translation prepared edition Inosmi.