The Covid-19 pandemic has had very tough impacts on us as a whole and a nation. It has swept across our nation for over a year now and continues to leave lasting effects to this day. Throughout this pandemic and the lockdowns, many people, including myself, relied heavily on the internet and the local news channels to get information and updates on what was going on. Everything was shut down and many people weren’t leaving the house very often because there simply wasn’t anywhere to go. Many people were getting sick, and hospitals were filling up very fast. We were in a complete lockdown and quarantine. People were in need of ventilators and hospital rooms that simply weren’t there. A time that I remember very vividly is when my brothers and I were over at my dad’s house eating dinner. While eating we always had the news on to get the latest updates as to what was going on. On this particular night, they were talking about the numbers of people getting sick and the hospitalizations that were occurring as a result. They went on to discuss the effects that the Covid-19 pandemic was having on a wide range of different people. From this news broadcast and other forms of media that we were seeing at this time, it became pretty clear that the impacts people who aren’t white were facing were much greater than those who are white were facing. As states by the commonwealth fund, “The Covid-19 pandemic’s impact in the United States has exposed long-standing inequalities by race, ethnicity, and income.” This statement holds a lot of meaning and value when discussing inequality that people face in the United States. They also go on to state that, “More than half of Latino and nearly half of Black survey respondents reported experiencing an economic challenge because of the pandemic – substantially more than the 21 percent of white respondents.” I feel that this is a huge systemic injustice. That is a huge difference in percent that goes to show that the Unites States as a nation has issues that must be sorted out.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/2020/sep/beyond-case-count-disparities-covid-19-united-states?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrJOMBhCZARIsAGEd4VFlSOe-piSHdR1C4LqgxK6oDt-QlloDc44Xjo4jo1N5GQgFUvkRtS4aAmMFEALw_wcB