WASHINGTON — With all the social unrest that is going on around us, it is easy to forget during our day-to-day living that we’re still dealing with the effects of a global pandemic and the societal inequities it has exposed.
In locales across the nation, the disparity in health care between Black and white citizens was shown to be drastic, and the District stands as one of the worst examples of this.
Black residents in D.C. have died from the virus at rate of nearly six times that of white residents. Black folks are 46% of the local population, yet make up 74% of the city’s deaths due to the virus. Said another way, three Black people have died for every one white person. This racial divide is one of the worst in the nation.
We know that the cause of this gap is largely systemic. The results of decades of racial neglect. But an investigation by American Public Media has found that a series of missteps by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration, at the beginning of the crisis, also played a large role. In comparison to other cities with large Black populations, D.C.’s response was said to be slow and passive.
There was little to no early testing being done east of the Anacostia River. According to reporting, this lack of early testing and contact tracing hid the extent and speed with which the virus was spreading into the community.
On April 15, Mayor Bowser ordered that all patients with underlying health conditions be provided with information on the virus and how to avoid it. It took nearly a month for the agency in charge to solicit bids for a contractor to carry this out. In that time 337 people died, and the virus spread.
The virus burned its way through St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the city-run psychiatric facility. According to advocates they never received the resources needed to control the spread. A federal judge had to step in, but by that time, 13 patients and one staffer had died.
The bottom line seems to be as disparities became apparent, Mayor Bowser didn’t do enough to address them. As other cities were marshaling resources to deal with racial disparities, our mayor created a committee to figure out how to reopen businesses.
To her credit, D.C. has advanced to Phase 2 of reopening without a significant rise in cases. But the administration refuses to talk about what went wrong, simply saying they did the best they could. They called the onset of COVID swift and unpredictable.
True, but it’s your job to deal with the unpredictable. They also said we have an opportunity to build a more equitable vibrant city. This may true, but it won’t happen unless you examine and publicly acknowledge the failures, so that as a community we can address them, showing that Black Lives Matter is not just a slogan that is painted on our streets.