Will Ross, professor of medicine and principal officer for community partnerships at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
The epidemiology of COVID-19 has vividly illustrated that this is not “flu on steroids,” as many are apt to believe. SARS-Cov-2, known as the novel coronavirus, is 2.5 times more infectious than the flu and 10-20 times more fatal, and thus more likely to overwhelm susceptible populations. We define “susceptible populations” as those who are unable to reach their full health potential because of social and structural barriers to health, including poverty, joblessness, inadequate housing, food insecurity, lack of access to affordable healthcare, and inadequate education.
The rampant spread of COVID-19 in the St. Louis region provided a unique opportunity to study the relationship between social and structural determinants of health and adverse outcomes, including death in African Americans and whites infected with COVID-19.
Read the full piece in the St. Louis American.
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