Differences in Health Outcomes as evidence of "systemic racism"

 

Data from the CDC for 2015-2019

Senator Tim Scott dragged the leftist-narrative that America is besieged by "Systemic Racism" out into the sunlight.

One of the talking heads pointed to the difference in health outcomes between Blacks and Whites and said it was evidence of "Systemic Racism". He claimed that Black women are five-to-six times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy.

According to the CDC, he exaggerated a little bit but there is a marked difference in mortality rates.

Digging a little bit deeper

The two biggest causes of death during pregnancy (of the mothers, not the fathers) are related to sudden-onset high blood pressure and due to blood clots, specifically lung embolisms.

Blacks have a higher rate of both high blood pressure AND blood clots in veins. There is no consensus regarding root-causes. Diet, genetics and life-style choices are often proposed as potential contributors.

Since high blood pressure is often free of external symptoms, it is imperative that pregnant women keep their pre-natal appointments.

It is within the bounds of the imagination that Black women, who are more likely to be single mothers, might have difficulty getting time off work or finding somebody to watch their other children so they can make their appointments. It would be interesting to see if there are any racial disparities in rates of missed pre-natal appointments.

Deep vein thrombosis is a typical source of the clots that break loose and cause lung embolisms, heart attacks and strokes. Again, there is no consensus on the reasons for racial disparities but genetics, sedentary lifestyles, obesity and going meds-noncompliant might be players.

Aspirin?

Aspirin binds to proteins in the blood and its anticoagulant effect throws a long shadow.

It would be interesting to see the effect of putting Black women on a regimen of one, low-dose (81mg) aspirin every-other day starting week 15 to prophylactically treat DVT.

There are two reasons why this will probably never happen.

There is no money in it for Big Pharma so nobody will fund the study (which would be dirt-cheap to run)

Blacks are historically distrustful of the medical establishment. Whenever that distrust starts to wane, somebody drags out the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment as "proof" that doctors cannot be trusted.

Summary

"Systemic racism" is a self-perpetuating meme. Belief in "systemic racism" causes Black people to be distrustful of medical people and, presumably, be more resistant to advice and treatment.

If "Systemic racism" exists in the United States it is because hustlers and the naive keep saying there is.