People Of Color Could Be Hit Hard In Rush To Reopen, LA City Councilman Warns
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Everyone is feeling so-called quarantine fatigue, but the rush to reopen may hit communities of color harder, LA City Councilman Herb Wesson warned in a video.
"Everybody wants to reopen, I want to reopen," Wesson said. "I just want to make sure it's done in a thoughtful and safe way because people of color disproportionately work the types of jobs where, you know, they're grocery workers, they're restaurant workers, they're blue collar workers. They don't work from the computer, so they're going to be exposing themselves more than others."
In the video he released on YouTube, Wesson says black, Latino and the working poor have died in higher numbers from coronavirus due to a long history of unequal access to health care.
"African Americans in particular make up 13% of this country's population but they are the ones that catch this virus at over a third, so over 33%, so that's significant. That's alarming and it would let me know that there are some disparities at least in our public health system that we need to be talking about."
Wesson says his constituents need more mass testing, especially where low-wage workers and minorities live and work. He also says he wants more protective gear and more discussion about public health in these communities of color.
