, followed by Black, Hispanic, Asian and white Americans, in that order.
This isn’t because people of color are inherently susceptible to COVID-19, but rather because the trickle-down effects of systemic racism have left them uniquely vulnerable. For example, people of color in the U.S.
To better understand how these social and environmental risk factors are geographically distributed, the City Health Dashboard calculated neighborhood-level COVID-19 infection risk based on 23 metrics, including racial breakdown, the number of residents who live in poverty or overcrowded housing, local rates of chronic conditions and more.
Across the Charles River in Cambridge, risk of infection is lower across the board. The highest-risk area, in the western part of the city, topped out at a four on the dashboard’s 1-10 scale. While Cambridge has its own struggles with segregation and income inequality, the gentrifying city has a significantly higher median household income than Boston and fewer residents living in poverty ,