Racial disparities in who contracts coronavirus have played out across the U.S., and South Carolina is no different. For this week's episode, reporters Mary Katherine Wildeman and Greg Yee share what they learned in reporting a recent piece on the pandemic's effects in South Carolina's Hispanic community.
Racial disparities in who contracts coronavirus have played out across the U.S., and South Carolina is no different.
A few months ago, data started to show that Black South Carolinians were getting sick and dying from COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates. And more recently, it's become clear that the Spanish-speaking population in the state has been particularly hard hit, too.
During a recent spike in cases in Greenville, state health officials reported that 30 percent of the cases were among the Hispanic community. About 9 percent of the county's population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
Volunteers are working hard to spread messages of public health to the states' Spanish-speaking population, but they're up against a slew of challenges. In these communities, the threat of the virus is often exacerbated by a lack of information, wariness about government involvement and a lack of trust in established media.
For this week's episode, reporters Mary Katherine Wildeman and Greg Yee share what they learned in reporting a recent piece on the pandemic's effects in South Carolina's Hispanic community.
We also talk through some notable updates from last week's conversation about the coronavirus pandemic, like what we know about the rapid rise in hospitalizations and why one study concluded the state has reached a "tipping point" in needing another stay-at-home order.