Obama calls for keeping ‘our most vulnerable communities at the forefront’ during coronavirus pandemic

Former President Obama on Monday urged policymakers to keep vulnerable communities in mind when deciding how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We can’t deny that racial and socioeconomic factors are playing a role in who is being hit the hardest by the virus,” Obama tweeted. “It’s a reminder for our policymakers to keep our most vulnerable communities at the forefront when making decisions.”

We can’t deny that racial and socioeconomic factors are playing a role in who is being hit the hardest by the virus. It’s a reminder for our policymakers to keep our most vulnerable communities at the forefront when making decisions.https://t.co/aipc8p7Hwh

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 13, 2020

Obama a link to an article from The Atlantic that analyzes the racial disparities in coronavirus cases and deaths. 

Lawmakers and advocates — including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) — have called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to publish data coronavirus cases and deaths broken down by race. 

Those calls came as several state and local governments began posting their own data by race, showing the virus is disproportionately affecting black and Latino communities. As of last week, 70 percent of the deaths in Louisiana were African Americans, even though the black community makes up 32 percent of the state’s population. 

The CDC has yet to put out data breaking down the virus’s effects by race.