This week, leading officials in the COVID-19 crisis revealed that minorities were disproportionately affected by the virus. The numbers were confirmed here in Shelby County as well, when the health department revealed that nearly three-quarters of those who have died here are black.
Political analyst Otis Sanford says these figures don't reflect racial susceptibility to the disease so much as how poverty, lack of quality healthcare, poor diets and other social ills allow it to flourish. Doctors, he says, may be able to speak about vaccines, but politicians could soon be on the hook for social remedies.
