In March 2020, after signing Executive Order No. 2020-55, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer formed the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities.
Whitmer’s Executive Order was in response to staggering reports that African Americans while representing just 14 percent of Michigan’s population, accounted for 60 percent of the state’s nearly 3 million coronavirus deaths as of October 2021. And for Black people in Detroit and across Michigan who were not dying of the virus, a high and disproportionate number became sick and hospitalized.
According to a Brookings Institute report, the state of Michigan had the fourth-highest COVID-19 mortality rate for Black Americans. Roughly 30 out of every 1,000 Black people living in Michigan died from COVID-19.
In the Detroit metropolitan area, the numbers were far worse.
Wayne County was most impacted by the virus and in Detroit, Black people represented over 75 percent of known COVID-19 diagnoses by race and nearly 90 percent of deaths.
The Task Force released a report indicating that even before the pandemic, Black Americans faced disparate challenges, such as overrepresentation in essential and frontline occupations; greater likelihood of living in multigenerational homes than White Americans, and greater likelihood of reporting fair or poor health. These factors increased Black and African Americans’ risk of COVID-19 infection, severe outcomes, and economic hardship during the pandemic.
- Black residents are seven times more likely to be very concerned about being evicted and 17 times more likely than White residents to report needing rent assistance.
- Black residents are significantly more likely than Whites to report not having enough money to pay their bills and take out loans relative to Whites. In fact, Blacks are 40 percent more likely to report that they run out of money. Over 75 percent of Detroiters make under $50,000 a year.
- Black residents in Detroit relative to White residents are significantly more likely to report challenges in securing and maintaining housing, obtaining medication, and getting food, water, and other household supplies.
- Black residents report spending more money on food and gas during the pandemic as well as obtaining food from local food banks. With children engaging mostly in remote learning, parents are concerned with having to provide more food with less money. Black Detroiters report being more likely to have children living in the home.
Whitmer chose Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, Michigan’s first African American ever elected to the office, to chair the Task Force, which consists of medical doctors, health experts, scientists, community organizers, business leaders, educators, and legislators. Since its inception, the Task Force, the first of its kind ever assembled in the nation, has made valuable inroads in reducing racial disparities caused by COVID and closing overall health and healthcare gaps experienced by Black, Brown, and other underserved groups.
The Task Force continues to meet virtually bi-weekly to further advance its agenda regarding COVID and help communities receive valuable information, resources, and tools to raise awareness and combat the deadly virus.
However, over the past summer, many Detroiters, other Michiganders, and Americans across the nation have returned to the life they experienced before the pandemic. President Biden recently put an exclamation mark on where the COVID-19 pandemic stands in America.
“The pandemic is over,” Biden said bluntly on Sept. 19, when interviewed at the Detroit International Auto Show by CBS’s “60 Minutes.” “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”
Many public health experts, including those in Detroit, believe the pandemic is far from over and more work to address the deadly virus needs to be done, especially since the virus in many states is on the uptick.
“As a society and community in the United States, we basically have arrived at the place where we are learning to live with the pandemic,” said African American task force member Bridget Hurd, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s vice president of Inclusion and Diversity, Chief Diversity Officer, and leads the giant health insurance company’s Office of Health and Health Disparities. “However, there is still a pandemic because there are still nearly 400 people dying every day because of COVID-19, and in Michigan, we are averaging just over 2,000 cases of the coronavirus per day. In Detroit, the numbers are ticking up.”
According to Hurd, one of the most significant developments of the Task Force is the recent establishment of 11 regional health equity councils across the state. Hurd said how the councils would function is currently being determined by the Task Force.
In the spring of 2022, the Task Force released new recommendations to protect African Americans and other communities of color from COVID-19. The recommendations included that the Task Force would continue collecting data to thoroughly understand and address racial disparities in healthcare, track Covid-19 infection rates throughout the state, and decrease the number of people underinsured and uninsured.
“The recommendations in this report going forward are going to make a difference right now in the health of communities of color across Michigan,” Gilchrist said in a statement. “With these recommendations, we’re taking another step towards a more equitable, more just, more safe, and more responsive Michigan for everyone.”
Task Force member M. Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University and a medical doctor, agrees. Wilson also believes that Detroiters are better prepared for other viruses because of the Task Force’s ongoing work.
“I feel that the Task Force has implications that broadly show with concerted efforts, improvements can be made in healthcare access and delivery even beyond the COVID in African American communities in Michigan,” said Wilson, who received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. “A difference can be made with certain interventions that can be quite encouraging when addressing other healthcare issues and problems in Black and Brown communities.”
In addition to COVID-19, the Task Force is tracking and responding to the outbreak of Monkeypox in Detroit and across the state.
“We saw a quick ramp-up of Monkeypox, in terms of cases, but that has started to go down,” Hurd said. “Those who are most at risk are getting vaccinated. But it is still important that we all reflect on the best practices we learned from COVID and make sure those practices are being carried forward against Monkeypox and other viruses.”
While every member of the Task Force is busy in his or her professional space across broad spectrums in Metro Detroit, the work of each has not gone unacknowledged.
“I am continually grateful for each task force member’s willingness to serve and create meaningful and lasting change,” said Gilchrist. “Governor Whitmer and I will not stop working alongside the people of color fighting against the odds to lead safer, happier, and healthier lives.”
So the short answer is a resounding yes, the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities is still relevant.
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