Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke at a webinar Thursday hosted by the where he discussed the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on the Latinx community and other people of color.
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鈥淭he United States has been hit harder than any other country in the world with almost seven million cases,鈥� Fauci said.
He added there are about 40,000 new infections every day throughout the country and that there is a 鈥渂ig disparity in increased incidence of infection and increased incidences of complications among minorities.鈥�
鈥淭hese bars show the rate of hospitalization per 100,000 population,鈥� Fauci said, showing CDC data on the webinar. 鈥淭ake a look at Hispanic/Latino, 348. Compare that to White/Non-Hispanic, 75.鈥�
Fauci also discussed some of the reasons why he thinks the Latinx community has a big discrepancy between infections and deaths.
鈥淚t is likely that there are two factors. One, I think is more important than the other, and that is the accessibility to getting into good care as quickly as you possibly can,鈥� Fauci said.
鈥淪omething that is even more important, and that is the increased incidence of the comorbidities that are associated with a poor outcome make it much more likely that both African Americans and Latinx are going to wind up having a severe outcome,鈥� he added.
He said some of those comorbidities include obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease and hypertension.
Fauci also said he believes there are other reasons why the Latinx community has been disproportionately impacted.
鈥淚f you look at the jobs that Latinx have in society, as a demographic group, it much more likely puts them outside in the frontline in contact with people as opposed to what you and I are doing with a computer, so they don鈥檛 have the ability to protect themselves,鈥� Fauci said.
鈥淣umber two,鈥� he explained, 鈥渢hey don鈥檛 have as good access to healthcare and number three because of their lack of access to healthcare, because of the fact that many of them are, quote, 'illegal,' if you want to use that terrible term, that they鈥檙e afraid to get into a system that would give them good healthcare.鈥�
Fauci said there are now four vaccines that are in advance trials with as many as 60,000 people per trial.
鈥淲e hope and I think that I鈥檓 cautiously optimistic that by the time we get to November or December we will know whether the vaccines are safe and effective,鈥� Fauci said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 conceivable, but unlikely that we will know by October, or earlier, but I think it鈥檚 likely going to be November and December.鈥�
He also said the U.S. is premanufacturing the vaccines in anticipation of a success.
鈥淚f it works you save months, if it doesn鈥檛, what you鈥檝e lost is money. Government money, or tax payer money,鈥� Fauci said. 鈥淭he reason I say that is because we did think it鈥檚 taking that risk to get vaccines to people as quickly as we possibly can.鈥�
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services estimates that there have been and more than 15,000 deaths.
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