Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan 19;12(1):1002.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-04507-x.

Race and ethnic minority, local pollution, and COVID-19 deaths in Texas

Annie Xu  1 , Ted Loch-Temzelides  2 , Chima Adiole  1 , Nathan Botton  3 , Sylvia G Dee  4 , Caroline A Masiello  1 , Mitchell Osborn  1 , Mark A Torres  1 , Daniel S Cohan  5
Affiliations

Race and ethnic minority, local pollution, and COVID-19 deaths in Texas

Annie Xu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The costs of COVID-19 are extensive, and, like the fallout of most health and environmental crises in the US, there is growing evidence that these costs weigh disproportionately on communities of color. We investigated whether county-level racial composition and fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) are indicators for COVID-19 incidence and death rates in the state of Texas. Using county-level data, we ran linear regressions of percent minority as well as historic 2000-2016 PM2.5 levels against COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita. We found that a county's percent minority racial composition, defined as the percentage of population that identifies as Black or Hispanic, highly correlates with COVID-19 case and death rates. Using Value-of-Statistical-Life calculations, we found that economic costs from COVID-19 deaths fall more heavily on Black and Hispanic residents in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas. We found no consistent evidence or significant correlations between historic county-average PM2.5 concentration and COVID-19 incidence or death. Our findings suggest that public health and economic aid policy should consider the racially-segregated burden of disease to better mitigate costs and support equity for the duration and aftermath of health crises.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(Fig. 1a–1d) Correlation between race/ethnic minority, PM2.5, and COVID-19 for the 50 Most Populous Counties in Texas. (a) Historical PM2.5 and COVID-19 cases. (b) Historical PM2.5 and COVID-19 deaths. (c) Racial/ethnic makeup and COVID-19 cases. (d) racial/ethnic makeup and COVID-19 deaths.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/. Accessed 14 March 2021.
    1. Dobson A, et al. Ecology and economics for pandemic prevention. Science. 2020;369(6502):379–381. doi: 10.1126/science.abc3189. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Atkeson, A.G. What will be the economic impact of COVID-19 in the US? Rough estimates of disease scenarios. Staff Report 595, Federal Reserve bank of Minneapolis. (2020).
    1. The DELVE Initiative. (2020). Economic Aspects of the COVID-19 Crisis in the UK. DELVE Report No. 5. https://rs-delve.github.io/reports/2020/08/14/economic-aspects-of-the-co.... Accessed 14 August 2020.
    1. Toxvaerd F. Rational disinhibition and externalities in prevention. Int. Econ. Rev. 2019;60(4):1737–1755. doi: 10.1111/iere.12402. - DOI

Publication types

MeSH terms