Orange County

‘Like a thief in the night’: Black, Latino, Native American people more likely to die from COVID-19, CDC says

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orlando city commissioner Regina Hill knows the grim toll COVID-19 has taken on the Black and Latino communities of Central Florida.

She lost a baby brother who was in good health.

“You live with this daily, the loss of a loved one because of COVID because it comes suddenly, like a thief in the night.”

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Hill wises she could prevent anyone else from experiencing the death of a loved one this way.

“You cannot hold their hand, you cannot say your last goodbyes with them hooked up to a ventilator,” Hill said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examine mortality throughout the pandemic and, when adjusted for age and population, its newest figures show that Black, Latino and Native American people are two to three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white people.

AdventHealth’s Chief Health Equity Officer Dr. Alric Simmonds said the reasons vary, from the need to use public transportation, and not being able to work remotely, and living in multigenerational households.

Als, Simmonds said, “because they have higher degrees of pre-existing conditions that have not been well-controlled.”

Commissioner Hill said there is still a lot of vaccine hesitancy in the Black community based on fear, culture, religion and myths.

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She said getting vaccinated is the responsible and humane thing to do for the community as a whole.


Adam Poulisse, WFTV.com

Adam Poulisse joined WFTV in November 2019.