About This Lesson
The reporting this lesson explores comes from the Pulitzer Center-supported project, The Science of COVID-19, featuring dozens of stories from Science Magazine reporters, many of whom have decades of experience covering infectious disease. We will focus on an interview between Ann Gibbons of Science Magazine and Dr. Sandra Crouse Quinn, a public health expert at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Their discussion centers on the over-representation of minority communities in coronavirus deaths — where, for example, Black people compose 32% of Louisiana's population, but 70% of the state’s deaths from COVID-19. Dr. Quinn explains that the phenomenon of epidemics disproportionately burdening marginalized communities is not new. She goes on to describe how these trends can be traced to historical disenfranchisement and poorer health across the board for many communities of color.
