Say What Now? U.S. Surgeon General Says Black and Latino Americans Should ‘Step Up,’ Avoid Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs’ to Stop COVID-19 From Ravaging the Community [Video]

The U.S. Surgeon General seems to think that Black and Latino people are disproportionately affected by by COVID-19 because of drugs and alcohol — not, you know, because of systemic and environmental racism that’s been affecting health and healthcare for people of color for years.

His comments come after Dr. Fauci spoke on data showing that Black people specifically have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.

“Health disparities have always existed for the African American community,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the White House on Tuesday. “Here again with the crisis, how it’s shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is because, yet again, when you have a situation like the coronavirus, they are suffering disproportionately.”

For a variety of reasons, including a greater likelihood of working jobs that put them on the frontline, decreased access to health care that leaves Black folks with more illness in general, and crowded living conditions that facilitates the virus spread, the coronavirus has been especially brutal in Black communities.

NOT because they’re doing drugs and drinking alcohol.

For more on how COVID-19 is affecting our community, specifically, click here.

Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams calls on communities of color to adhere to #coronavirus advice from Trump’s task force: “If not for yourself, then for your abuela. Do it for your grand daddy. Do it for your big mama. Do it for your pop-pop.” pic.twitter.com/9QgCrUBChR

— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) April 10, 2020