Bay Area

COVID-19’s Unequal Toll on Black Americans: A Q&A With Tina Sacks

Published

5 years ago

April 16, 2020

The recently-released data are shocking: COVID-19 is infecting and killing black people at an alarmingly high rate. An Associated Press analysis — one of the first attempts to examine the racial disparities of COVID-19 cases and deaths nationwide — has found that, of nearly 3,300 of the 13,000 deaths so far, about 42% of the deceased were African American. Black Americans account for about 21% of the total population in the areas covered by the AP analysis.
Other minority groups’ cases and deaths are fairly in line with their demographics, the analysis found, although among Hispanic individuals, there are some hot spots.

Black residents have been hardest hit in several U.S. cities, including New York City, Milwaukee and New Orleans. In another, Chicago, the city’s public health agency reported this week that African Americans accounted for 72% of deaths from COVID-19 complications and 52% of positive tests for the coronavirus, despite making up only 30% of the city’s population.

Tina Sacks

This week, Berkeley News spoke about this issue with Tina Sacks, an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare and faculty chair of the Center for Research on Social Change at the campus’s Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Her areas of expertise include racial disparities in health and health care; race, class and gender; and the social safety net.
Before her arrival at Berkeley, she worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for nearly 10 years as special assistant to the CDC director during the first coronavirus outbreak — SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

Berkeley News: Data are beginning to surface that black Americans are suffering the brunt of the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in urban areas. What structural factors in our society are contributing to these alarming outcomes?

Tina Sacks: Unfortunately, the preliminary data that we are seeing is in keeping with what we might expect, given the underlying structural inequality in this country. First, black people have experienced decades of residential racial segregation, unlike any other ethno-racial group. This means that Black neighborhoods typically have fewer institutional anchors, such as grocery stores, good schools and safe places to walk outside and exercise. There is even a relationship, for example, between residential segregation and living in neighborhoods with fewer trees, which leads to poorer air quality.

Black people are disproportionately exposed to indoor and outdoor environmental toxins in their homes and neighborhoods. Black people are more likely to grow up in poverty, live in substandard housing, attend under-resourced schools and are more likely to end up in the carceral system. All of these things exact a terrible toll on black people’s health through the life course, making them more likely to have the chronic conditions — like diabetes, asthma and hypertension — that make them more vulnerable to COVID.

Black people are also more likely to be uninsured, making their access to care spotty. Plus, we know from my work and that of others scholars who research bias during the health care encounter that Black people’s health complaints are less likely to be taken seriously.

So, if someone does present in the emergency room, they may be turned away. Black people face challenges when they need to interface with the health care system, particularly when it is already taxed in the manner it is currently.

Lastly, Black people are concentrated in parts of the labor market where workers cannot stay home to shelter in place, which presumably brings them into contact with more people and ultimately increases their risk of acquiring COVID. This is true for other minorities in the U.S., as well. For example, Black people may be working retail jobs in the ‘essential services’ sector, like the Black woman I encountered at the CVS in downtown Berkeley. She told me she had traveled by bus for three hours to make it to her shift as a checkout clerk. The bus lines have been cut, so it took her even longer to make it to work. People are calling off work because they are afraid to come in. She said she was terrified to come in, but felt it was her responsibility, so she woke up at 5:30 a.m. to go to work wearing her mask and gloves. Black people are also concentrated in industries that do not have paid sick leave. All of these policy level issues disproportionately affect Black people and other people of color.

In addition to all this, Black people live in a society that chronically undervalues their lives and humanity. This really cannot be overstated as another determinant of human health and well-being. Living in a society like that takes a toll.

Why are urban living conditions especially dangerous for the transmission of COVID-19?

Although I haven’t seen data on this, I would speculate that living in densely-populated areas like New York City can speed transmission. We know certainly that in overcrowded institutional settings where Black people are over-represented, like jails and prisons, there is no possibility of social distancing. This is something that really needs to be discussed more. The NYT is reporting that Cook County Jail in Chicago has the largest number of cases with a known source in the U.S., 353.

What is access to COVID-19 testing and treatment like, for low-income African Americans and other low-income people of color?

Because Black people are less likely to be insured (as well as Latinx and poor people), their access to testing is necessarily going to be spotty. We’ve seen that famous people — who, of course, can be black or people of color — have had easier access to testing. In general, I would say that we know that everyone has had a hard time getting tested, but what is happening to Black people during the COVID crisis is akin to a saying in the Black community, ‘When white folks catch a cold, Black people get pneumonia.’ Crises affect the Black community much more profoundly. This is definitely the case for other communities of color. For example, Native people also bear a disproportionate disease burden and are deeply affected by COVID.

Is the nation, and are any cities across America, addressing these issues in a helpful way?

I have heard that some cities are making statements about (the situation), and acknowledging the issue is an important first step. But because the causes are so deeply embedded in the social system and in social policy, I think the solutions also need to be rooted there, but that will take a lot of time and political will.

In the meantime, cities like Chicago are taking steps to try to address the issue, including;

1) Mandating the reporting of the number of cases and deaths by race and ethnicity.

2) Setting up a public health rapid response team comprised of activists and public health experts to talk to people in the black, Latinx and immigrant communities.

3) Re-routing buses to the south and west sides to better enable social distancing on bus lines.

Addressing this will require short- and long-term interventions, and some of the most major ones are to finally address structural inequality — to provide reparations and to work toward a fully-developed safety net that includes health insurance and paid sick leave.

Gretchen Kell

UC Berkeley News - Media Relations

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

6 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

7 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.