Essay Example on Coronavirus: Impact on Ethnicity & Cultural Diversity?

Introduction

Coronavirus is a disease caused by the covid-19 virus, which creates SARS-COV-2 respiratory conditions. The disease erupted in December 2019 and has been categorized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. There are concerns that this spreading of the virus could be linked to ethnicity and cultural diversity among the population. This speculation came about when ten doctors in the United Kingdom belong to a minority ethnicity succumbed to the disease. In the USA, ethnic minority individuals are reported to be inappropriately infected by the virus. Cultural diversity also taking part in influencing the spread of Coronavirus amongst the people

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Covid-19 Aad Ethnicity

Coronavirus has been speculated to be spreading more in the areas that have minority ethnic groups than the areas that are dominated by the white population. Ethnicity comes about with differences in genetic composition, societal norms, cultural identity, and different behaviorism. All these factors could be the reason why the Coronavirus spreads differently across different ethnic groups (Khunti et al., 2020).

The first case of the Covid -19 virus was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The circumstances of the infected cases rose steadily .the numbers of those who were getting better were also favourable. By March 2020, Wuhan city was declared free from corona since china was successful in controlling it. However, in Italy, the disease erupted, and infections and deaths sky rocked. The first two cases of the infection in Italy were announced on 23rd January 2020. By 24th March, more than 1000 people had succumbed to the virus, and with time, the country surprised the world when deaths rose to hundreds to a thousand per day. The Italy prime minister announced that they had been defeated by the disease. It was leading in the world. The disparity in the infection, recovery and death rate of Coronavirus could be attributed to ethnicity( Kamlesh, 2020)

In the USA, statistics show that Coronavirus has affected more minority groups compared to whites. The report was compiled from observational data from intensive care reports. People are getting admitted in the ICU are minority groups such as the blacks and Asians. Statement by the Washington Post indicates that there are more reports of cases of coronavirus infections from the counties that have a higher population of the black majority. Research shows that the black in the USA has three-time chances of getting infected by the virus than their white counterparts (Laurencin et al., 2020).

The reason for this disparity can be attributed to economic inequalities and cultural norms differences between the two races. Minority group's infection in the USA could be associated with the reason that blacks could be social economically impaired compared to whites. The black ethnic communities also live with their extended families, a cause that can be attributed to the higher cases reported, since this increases the chances of contracting the virus. The differences in infections also can be attributed to lifestyle genetic makeup and cultural diversities amongst the races. Also, pathophysiological predisposition is likely to determine how individuals from different ethnic groups react to infections.

Covid 19 Management And Gender

According to the New York Times, men present a higher chance of getting infected by the Coronavirus than women. Gender roles determine where someone spends most of his time (Wenham et al., 2020). Women spend a higher percentage of their time in their homes, while men tend to spend their time more in social places, a factor that has seen men get more infected than women. The mortality rate of men is higher compared to women.

The hygiene health habits of men place them at a higher risk of contracting the virus than women. The only way of preventing oneself from contracting the Coronavirus is by a regular wash of hands. Men are generally less likely to wash their hands or use disinfectants as compared to their female counterparts. And this makes the men vulnerable to the disease.

Men also spent most of their time in social places, making them more susceptible to the disease as the virus spreads through physical contacts (Wenham et al., 2020). Men also are less likely to visit the doctor on the onset of the symptoms; a factor that makes them more affected by the disease since men visit doctors at the very late stage of the illness when the symptoms are full-blown. And this presses more weight on the Covid-19 management doctors since the disease is harder to treat when in the advanced stage.

However, with all that has been said about men, a recent study indicates that women are a higher risk of contracting the virus because of the roles they play in society, but this does not make them most exposed to the virus than men. The majority of health workers are females. Nurses have the highest number of health care providers, and the majority of them are women. Nurses are at the forefront of the fight against the Coronavirus in healthcare facilities. These women are, therefore, more exposed to the virus. Also, women are caregivers in homes, and they are most likely;y to be the ones to take care of the sick individuals at home, a factor that places them at a higher risk of getting infected.

By 4th April 2020, The New York City Health provided data that indicates that men die more from the virus than women. According to the source,1.8% of women had died of the illness compared to to32.2% women (Wenham et al., 2020). Also, In the USA, by 7th May 2020, out of the 75,000 deaths confirmed, only 15.8% are whites, while 84.2% are the minorities, African -Americans having the highest percent of 40.9 deaths (Wenham et al., 2020). Therefore, in the fighting of the virus, the state should be more specific on the population to help out who are more vulnerable.

References

Caramelo, F., Ferreira, N., & Oliveiros, B. (2020). Estimation of risk factors for COVID-19 mortality-preliminary results. MedRxiv. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.24.20027268v1

Kunti., Singh, A. K., Pareek, M., & Hanif, W. (2020). Is ethnicity linked to incidence or outcomes of covid-19?. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30922-3/fulltext

Laurencin, C. T., & McClinton, A. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic: a call to action to identify and address racial and ethnic disparities. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-5. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40615-020-00756-0.pdf

Wenham, C., Smith, J., & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet, 395(10227), 846-848 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30526-2/fulltext?te=1&nl=in-her%20words&emc=edit_gn_20200317.

Wenham, C., Smith, J., & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet, 395(10227), 846-848. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30526-2/fulltext?te=1&nl=in-her%20words&emc=edit_gn_20200317